Syrian journalist Mazen Darwish released after 3.5 years
After more than three years in prison for criticising the government’s crackdown on protesters, Syrian authorities on Monday, 10 August, released prominent journalist and partner of IMS, Mazen Darwish
Mazen Darwish was released ahead of the final verdict in his case on 21 August, according to his wife Yara Badera. The leading journalist and human rights activist was arrested in February 2012 along with two colleagues from his Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression.
The three were accused of “promoting terrorist acts” and held despite repeated calls from media and rights groups for their release. They were moved between prisons several times, and court dates in their case were regularly postponed. Darwish’s colleagues Hussein Ghreir and Hani al-Zaitani were released last month in an amnesty announced as a gesture for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr.
Darwish has received multiple awards in acknowledgement of his work, including, in May, UNESCO’s annual press freedom prize. IMS has been following his case closely and has along with other likeminded organisations advocated for his release and a dropping of all charges against him.
Some 200,000 people are held in Syrian government detention centres, prisons and security facilities, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor. Last year, President Bashar al-Assad signed an amnesty that was supposed to see tens of thousands of political prisoners freed, but rights activists say only several hundred were actually released. Rights organisations and the United Nations have said torture is practised systematically in Syrian prisons, and photos purportedly taken inside the country’s detention facilities have documented appalling abuses. Syria’s conflict began in March 2011 with anti-government protests inspired by similar uprisings elsewhere in the Middle East. Since them more than 240,000 people have been killed.
