Syrian intellectuals call on al-Assad to carry out reforms

More than 100 Syrian intellectuals on Tuesday issued a statement in which they called on the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to adopt political and economic reforms and take decisive measures to fight corruption.

The signatories of the statement expressed their hope that the Syrian president will take "decisive decisions towards corruption," the same way it dealt with the question of the Syrian forces withdrawal from Lebanon.

The signatories, including journalists working for the official media, called on the Syrian president to introduce reforms to the country at the political, economic; cultural and media level and to facilitate the establishment of civil societies, issue papers and magazines and licensing TV and radio stations. Among signatories of the statement are journalists Hassan. M. Youssef; Nadia Khoust, writer Burhan Bukhari, Walid Ikhlasi and Nasr Edine al-Bahra.

On the other hand, the spokesman for the Arab rights human organization Ammar Qurabi called on the exiled Syrians not to return until the issuance of a general amnesty on political crimes. Al-Qurabi call came while he was commenting on the detention of Mahmoud Sammaq, the Syrian citizen who lived in Yemen for 24 years and was detained by the mid of April at the Damascus International airport immediately after his arrival on the background of permitting exiled to return back home.