The Criminal Court in Damascus (First Room) sentenced the activist in current affairs and Secretary General of the Future Kurdish Movement, Mash’al Al Tamo, to three years and a half in prison, with confinement, fines, and being stripped of his civil rights, on Monday 11/5/2009.

The court condemned the engineer Mash’al AlTamo of spreading false news in order to lower the morale of the nation, weaken the national sentiment, and provoke sectarian and racist rifts, based on articles 285 and 286 of the Syrian Penal Code, despite the fact that the court refused to allow him to defend himself in a previous session.

Engineer Mash’al Al Tamo was born in Al-Dirbasiyah and is a father to six children and resides in the city of Al-Qamishli where he is an activist in general and Kurdish affairs. He was abducted on 15/8/2008 whilst he was travelling between Ain Al-Arab and Aleppo. It was later revealed that the Political Security Branch had arrested him and transferred him to Adra Central Prison (Rural Damascus) as well as transferring him to the Criminal Court with the abovementioned accusations.

The Syrian Human Rights Committee (SHRC) considers Mash’al AlTamo a democratic activist striving for democracy and equality for all Syrian citizens, and views the issued sentence against him as only reflecting the view of the dominant apparatuses which resort to suppressing every voice that is free and independent of their following, and not reality.
Due to this, SHRC calls for the repelling of the sentence issued against Mash’al Al Tamo, as well as all similar sentences issued against Syrian activists, and to put an end to arbitrary arrests and unjust courts.

Syrian Human Rights Committee
11/5/2009