AI: Fears grow for Kurdish man held in Syrian custody

Amnesty International is urging the Syrian authorities to release or charge a Kurdish man who has been detained for almost two years.

Reports from exiled Kurdish activists have raised fears that ‘Abdelbaqi Khalaf has been tortured at the hands of State Security.

The political activist is reportedly being taken from Damascus Central prison to a State Security office every few weeks to coerce him into “confessing” to the killings of two Syrian security agents in the north-eastern city of Qamishily in early 2008, a crime he denies committing.

“We are seriously concerned about reports that ‘Abdelbaqi Khalaf has been repeatedly tortured under questioning by State Security agents in an attempt to force him to confess to a crime that he says he did not commit,” said Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

“These allegations must be independently and impartially investigated without delay and those identified as responsible brought to justice.”

Previously a member of the Syrian Kurdish political party known as the Popular Union (Ittihad al-Sha’b), ‘Abdelbaqi Khalaf had helped establish a clandestine library of Kurdish-language books, which are banned in Syria – a country where Kurds face discrimination and where Kurdish civil society activists risk arbitrary arrest, torture and unlawful imprisonment.

‘Abdelbaqi Khalaf has been refused access to a lawyer and his family was on one occasion prevented from visiting him, allegedly because he had been tortured and was not in a fit state to be seen.

Re: http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/fears-grow-kurdish-man-held-…