From Committee to Protect Journalists:
New York, June 21, 2010—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Syrian authorities to release a journalist who is being held despite having completed a 30-month prison sentence in Damascus.
Ali al-Abdallah, a freelance journalist who has regularly written for numerous prominent Arabic-language publications outside Syria, was supposed to be released on June 17 but a military court informed him that he will be given new charges and must remain in jail.
“It is outrageous that Ali al-Abdallah should be held beyond his court-imposed sentence,” said CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator Mohamed Abdel Dayem. “We call on the authorities to stop fabricating charges against him and release him immediately.”
Al-Abdallah was arrested in December 2007 after he was elected to the secretariat of the Damascus Declaration, a reform movement calling for peaceful and democratic changes in Syria. He was charged with “disseminating false information with the aim of harming the state and weakening national feelings,” “membership in a secret organization designed to destabilize the political and economic structure of the state,” and with “inciting ethnic and racial tension.” Al-Abdallah was sentenced in October 2008 to 30 months in prison. The authorities included the eight months he served before the trial.
via Syria detains journalist beyond sentence – Committee to Protect Journalists.
