Lawyers who criticise Syrian government face prison, warns human rights leader

INTIMIDATION: Amnesty International calls on worldwide legal community to launch protest

Lawyers in Syria who criticise the government are at risk of imprisonment and persecution, according to a leading human rights lawyer.

Haytham al-Maleh was imprisoned in 1980 for criticism of the government, and since his release in 1986 has been actively working on behalf of political prisoners in Syria.

Mr al-Maleh, who is 70, is currently facing the threat of imprisonment when he returns to Syria.

'The organisation which I am head of, the Human Rights Association in Syria (HRAS), is outspoken about the government's appalling record on human rights,' said Mr al-Maleh, speaking to the Gazette.

'I am regularly summoned by the military police and questioned for hours, and I am due to appear before a military court in January.'

The charges against him - which include distributing a publication without licence (the organisation's magazine, Teyyarat), involvement with an international organisation without government permission and dissemination of false information - carry a maximum term of three years in jail.

Mr al-Maleh said the chances of him going to jail were 'quite high', but denied that he was a political activist.

'I am not a politician, I am a lawyer,' he said.

'The government wants the lawyers and judges in their pockets, and we are not, which is why we are persecuted.'

Along with fellow human rights lawyer Anwar al-Bunni, Mr al-Maleh was also suspended by the Damascus branch of the Bar Association (DBA) in April this year.

The two men were defending Mamun al-Humsi, a prisoner of conscience currently serving a five-year jail sentence.

After the trial, they issued a press statement questioning the validity of the man's hearing, and criticised the DBA.

'The DBA claimed that the references made to it were defamatory, and has suspended us both, stifling our freedom of expression,' said Mr al-Maleh.

Amnesty International, which is supporting the two men, has urged the international legal community to write to the Syrian government in protest at their treatment.

Elsewhere, the International Bar Association (IBA) has warned that lawyers in Nepal are facing serious threats to their independence and ability to work.

The IBA's newly released report 'Nepal in Crisis: Justice caught in the crossfire' claims that lawyers are being intimidated in Maoist controlled areas - roughly a third of the country.

The report maintains that the rule of law has been disregarded and state courts have been replaced by 'people's courts' presided over by local military commanders.

LINKS: www.amnesty.org.uk; www.ibanet.org

Victoria MacCallum