Rights Groups Condemn Trial of Kurdish Political Leader

Syria Media Report, 20-Feb-09

IWPR

Institute for War & Peace Reporting

Friday, 20 February, 2009

Rights Groups Condemn Trial of Kurdish Political Leader

Syria Media Report, 20-Feb-09

Human rights organisations have criticised the trial of Kurdish political activist Mashaal Tammo, an official in the banned opposition party Future Movement.

Tammo’s trial, which was scheduled to begin on February 18, has now been postponed until next week, according to the Kurdish Organisation for the Defence of General Freedoms and Human Rights in Syria.

In a statement published on its website, the organisation said that Tammo denied all the charges against him.

He was arrested while travelling to his home in Aleppo on August 15, and then charged 12 days later, accused of committing aggression and arming Syrians to start a civil war – a capital offence which carries the death penalty.

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