Postcards to Prison
SMN No 7, August 13, 2010
Supporters of the prominent imprisoned Syrian activist Haytham al-Maleh have been urged to send him greeting cards on his 80th birthday this week.
A newly launched website, The Haitham Maleh Foundation for the Defence of Human Rights, offers greeting cards in seven languages designed specially for the occasion.
Al-Maleh is serving a three-year sentence at Adra prison. He was convicted by a military tribunal of “publishing false news” and “weakening national sentiment”.
“It’s a personal initiative of mine,” Iyas al-Maleh, Haitham’s son, who lives in the United States, told The Damascus Bureau by email, adding that “this solidarity card is one of many methods to be used to show some moral support for [such] prisoners”.
The website includes detailed information about Maleh senior, who has been a lawyer and judge for more than 50 years and is considered one of the oldest human rights activists in Syria. He was imprisoned for the first time 1980, serving a six year sentence on similar charges.
He was arrested again in October 2009 after he gave an interview to an opposition TV channel, in which he spoke about corruption and human rights violations in Syria.
The younger Maleh said the website and foundation will continue to support all human rights defenders in Syria.
“This foundation is not temporary and to be stopped when my father is released, but will continue to raise all human rights defenders cases,” he added.
The foundation, says its website, works towards “exposing the violations, assaults and aggressions against Syrian human rights defenders and their fundamental liberties”.
Syria has been subject to emergency law since 1963, which allows the authorities to deal harshly with human rights defenders. Currently, three are being held in prison. Besides Haithm al-Maleh, lawyers Muhannad al-Hassani and Anwar al-Bunni are serving three- and five-year sentences respectively.
