Today the President of Ireland, Mary McAleese, presented the 2008 Front Line Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk to Anwar al-Bunni of Syria. The Award was collected on his behalf by his wife Ragheda Issa Refki.
Front Line is deeply concerned following reports of the arbitrary arrest and detention of human rights defender Mohammed Badih al-Bab on 2 March 2008 in Damascus. Mohammed Badih al-Bab is a member of the National Organisation for Human Rights in Syria.
Front Line is deeply concerned following reports that human rights defender and writer Karam Ibrahim Yousef was shot in the head on 20 March 2008. Karam Ibrahim Yousef has written extensively in defence of the human rights of the Kurdish community in Syria.
Front Line is deeply concerned following the arbitrary arrest of human rights defender Osma Edward Keryo in the city of Al Hasakah, on 27 February 2008. Osma Anwar Keryo is a member of the Committee for the Defence of Civil Liberties in Syria.
Front Line is deeply concerned following the arrest of three human rights defenders, Ali al-Abdallah and Fayez Sarah, members of the Damascus Centre for Human Rights (DCHRS) and Akram-al Bunni, member of the Human Rights Association by members of the State Security branch, which is a branch of the General Security Administration in December 2007 and January 2008. They are being held incommunicado without charge, and it is feared that they may be tortured and or ill-treated. Their whereabouts have not been disclosed by the authorities though it is believed that they are being detained in a building of the State Security branch.
A human rights lawyer and founding member of the Syrian Human Rights Association, Anwar al-Bunni, was sentenced on 24 April 2007 by a Damascus Court to five-year imprisonment under Article 286 of the Syrian Penal Code, for disseminating “false information harmful to the state” and membership of an illegal political organisation
