Three-Year Sentence for Kurdish Leader

Kurdish activist Meshaal Tammo was sentenced to three-and-half years in prison on May 11, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on its website.



Human rights organisations condemned the verdict against the leader of the Kurdish Future Movement, according to a statement on the website. Tammo. 52, was convicted of spreading “false information liable to weaken national sentiment”, a fairly standard charge leveled against dissidents.



The court refused to hear testimony either from Tammo himself or from witnesses called by his lawyer during the April 22 trial, said the website. The organisation said this was in breach of the Syrian constitution and of international conventions to which Damascus is a signatory.



Tammo was arrested on August 15 last year. Syrian authorities have recently been clamping down on Kurdish intellectuals and activists.