Syria releases officials from Jordanian engineers union

Jordanian criticisms against Syria due to the detention of some 500 Jordanian citizens in Syria without trial during recent years escalated, demanding that they either be released or presented to a fair trail.

The head of the Jordanian detainees' committee in Syria, lawyer Emad El-Sharawi, stated that there was a note sent to the Syrian government that called on it to take the necessary procedures to stop the torture of Jordanians in Syrian prisons, to enable their relatives to visit them and to secure a fair trial for them.

El-Sharawi said the note will call for a halt to the detention campaign against Jordanian citizens on the Syrian borders and that the Jordanian government should move in all areas to persuade the Syrian authorities to release the prisoners.

Meanwhile, Jordanian sources confirmed that the Syrian authorities released engineer Moussa Hatach, the head of a committee that opposes normalization with Israel, in the Jordanian engineering union and his collegue, Ryad Abu Hazeem, after they were detained in Syria.

The two were part of a delegation of 80 engineers on the way to attend the meetings of high council of the Arab Engineers Union, which began its work yesterday in Beirut.

Sources said that the mediation made by the chief of Syrian engineers, Gassan Tiara, to release the Jordanian engineers failed.

The Jordanian Engineers' Union expressed its strong resentment toward the detention of the engineers.