Syrian official protest against false accusations from Iraq

The Bureau of the Syrian Interests Section in Baghdad has sent an official protest to the Iraqi Foreign Ministry against the "unfounded allegations" recently broadcast by the state-run Iraqi satellite television station on confessions by two Syrians detainees who were forced under intimidation to present themselves as Syrian army intelligence officers.

The Bureau, on directives from the Syrian Foreign Ministry, stressed in the memorandum of protest that the two Syrians Ahmad al-Farra and Mahmoud Rammah are leather traders, adding that both used to go to Iraq to purchase leather and they are neither medically nor academically qualified to do the alleged jobs assigned to them as claimed by the Iraqi report.

The protest emphasized that the Iraqi report has been refuted by the information received from the families of Farra and Rammah in the Syrian city of Ma'arrat al-Nu'man as well as by authentic and independent press reports widely broadcast by the media.

Syria called on the Iraqi government to quickly set free the two Syrian detainees Farra and Rammah and to enable them to return home.