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Syria Cracking Down on Human Rights Activists
By Julie Stahl
CNSNews.com Jerusalem Bureau Chief
May 11, 2007

Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - A Syrian human rights activists was sentenced to 12 years in prison Thursday for meeting with White House officials two years ago. The move signals that any dissent in the country will not be tolerated.

A Syrian court found Dr. Kamal a-Labwani guilty of "communicating with a foreign country and inciting it to initiate aggression against Syria," reports said.

Labwani, a 50-year-old physician, was arrested in 2005 after returning from a two-month trip to the U.S. and Europe where he met with government officials, journalists and other human rights activists.

Ammar Qorabi, head of the National Organization for Human Rights in Syria, was quoted as saying that this was the "harshest judgment" handed down to a "prisoner of conscience" since Syrian President Bashar al-Assad came to power in 2000.

Washington condemned the Syrian government for what State Department spokesman Sean McCormack called its "harsh and unjust sentencing" of Labwani.

McCormack said it reflected the Syrian regime's "contempt for human rights and a legal system devoid of legitimate legal standards." He also expressed concern over reports that Labwani had been subjected to "inhumane treatment."

Sarah Leah Whitson of Human Rights Watch said the Syrian government had "accelerated its crackdown on free speech and peaceful activism." Peaceful activists like Labwani are paying a heavy price for expressing their views, she said.

Labwani is founder of the Democratic Liberal Gathering, a group of Syrian intellectuals and activists who are pushing for democratic and secular reforms in Syria.

Labwani's conviction comes less than three weeks after the conviction of another Syrian human rights activist. Anwar al-Bunni received a five-year prison sentence on April 24 after campaigning against torture in Syrian prisons.

He was charged with spreading false news that could weaken national morale

Several other human rights activists are now awaiting trial.

Following al-Bunni's conviction, he, Labwani and four other activists wrote a letter warning that the repression and suppression of public freedom and human rights was worsening in Syria.

They said activists sent to jail should not feel like they are alone. They also expressed "hope for a peaceful resolution of the crisis of freedoms and human rights in Syria."

The Washington-based Freedom House listed Syria in a report on the world's most repressive societies, published on Wednesday.

The Syrian government, the report said, "continued its repression of political rights and civil liberties in 2006 and renewed its crackdown on dissidents." Syria also continued to support the Lebanese-based terrorist organization Hizballah and to be a close ally of the hard-line Iranian regime, Freedom House said.

The State Department considers Syria to be a state sponsor of terrorism because of its support of Hizballah and Palestinian terrorist groups. Washington also has accused Syria of allowing insurgents to cross its border

Yet many Western diplomats, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, now appear to be softening towards the Syrian leadership.

Rice met with her Syrian counterpart Walid Muallem last week on the sidelines of a conference in Egypt dealing with the problems in Iraq.

Several weeks ago, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi met with Syrian President Assad in Damascus against the wishes of President Bush, who has tried to isolate Syria for its intransigence.

"Syrian officials repeatedly claim that their country wants to play a constructive role in the region," said Whitson of Human Rights Watch. "But this is hard to believe as they continue to imprison peaceful dissidents at home."

A HRW researcher who covers Damascus said Western diplomats should focus more on human rights violations in Syria, a topic that often gets shoved aside by larger concerns about Iraq or Lebanon. That sends a signal that human rights are not a priority for the West, the researcher said.

If Syria believes it will pay a price for human rights violations, it will change its policy, he said.

Syria Cracking Down on Human Rights Activists (http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewForeignBureaus.asp?Page=/ForeignBureaus/archive/200705/INT20070511c.html)