Report of mission to to monitor the hearings of the trial of Haytham Al-Maleh, prominent Syrian human rights lawyer. The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN), and the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders – a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) carried out six missions1 to Damascus between February and July 2010 to monitor the hearings of the trial of Haytham Al-Maleh, an 80-year-old prominent Syrian human rights lawyer and former President of the Human Rights Association in Syria (HRAS). Haytham Al-Maleh was unlawfully arrested by officers of the General Intelligence Service on 14 October 2009 and prosecuted before the Second Military Court of Damascus on the grounds of “transferring false and exaggerated news that weaken national sentiments,” “spreading false or exaggerated information abroad which undermines the prestige of the State,” and “slandering the judicial system.”
Syria-trial Al-Maleh-trial observation report-2010-eng (full text in English, PDF)
Syria-trial Al-Maleh-trial observation report-2010-fra (full text in French, PDF)