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SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC
CASE No. SYR/03 - RIAD SEEF

Resolution adopted by consensus by the IPU Governing Council at its 178th session
(Nairobi, 12 May 2006)


The Governing Council of the Inter-Parliamentary Union,

Referring to the case of Mr. Riad Seef, a former member of the People’s Assembly of the Syrian Arab Republic, as outlined in the report of the Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians (CL/178/12(b)-R.1), and to the resolution adopted at its 177th session (October 2005),

Referring also to the report of its on-site mission carried out from 11 to 14 May 2002 (CL/173/11(b)-R.4),

Recalling that Mr. Seef was arrested on 6 September 2001 and charged with "defamation of the Constitution, unlawful activities and hostility towards the regime" because he had organized discussion forums at which, inter alia, political questions were raised; on 4 April 2002, he was found guilty of attempting to change the Constitution by unlawful means, setting up a clandestine organization and organizing unauthorized meetings, and he was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment; the judgement was upheld on appeal on 24 June 2002, and an application for early release was dismissed in July 2005,

Taking account of the communication from the Speaker of the People’s Assembly of the Syrian Arab Republic dated 22 March 2006, confirming Mr. Seef’s release on 18 January 2006,

  1. Notes that Mr. Seef has finally been released and decides to close his case;

  2. Reaffirms nevertheless its conclusion, reached in the light of the documents and information gathered by its on-site mission, that Mr. Riad Seef was arrested, detained, prosecuted and sentenced merely for having exercised his freedom of expression guaranteed under the Constitution of the Syrian Arab Republic and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which the Syrian Arab Republic is a party; and deeply regrets that its consistent calls on the President of the Republic and the parliamentary authorities to grant Mr. Seef a pardon or to include him in an amnesty law have not been heeded, while other prisoners have been granted presidential pardons during the period in question;

    Requests the Secretary General to inform the authorities and the sources accordingly.

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