Kurdish Writer Detained

Syrian security services raided the house of Kurdish writer Pierre Rustum in the village of Jindease village in Ifrein and took him to the Aleppo security office on March 15, the National Council of the Damascus Declaration reported.



Air force security officers confiscated Rustum’s personal computer and seized personal papers. Rustum is a member of the opposition Damascus Declaration group. He was detained for one night in December 2007 after attending the first meeting of the group’s national council.



Rustum is a member of the Syrian Democratic Kurdish Party and in addition to authoring many opposition articles, Rustum is published an e-book in 2006 titled “The Empire of Fear, Culture and Blood”.



In a separate development, Mazen Darwish, the director of the Media and Freedom of Speech group, was interrogated by a military court on March 17, the Committee for the Defence of Democratic Freedoms and Human Rights reported the following day.



The questioning was about Darwish’s reporting of violence in the Adraa district of Syria, in which shops and homes were destroyed. He had originally been questioned on the subject on January 12, but police released him after three days after deciding not to pursue the charge that he had instigated sectarian conflict. At this latest hearing, the military court accused him of slandering Adraa police. The hearing was adjourned until April 15 so that witnesses could be brought.