Hundreds of Syrians have been charged with “maligning the prestige of the state”, a Syrian rights group said, in President Bashar al-Assad’s drive to crush pro-democracy protests against his 11-year autocratic rule. The charge, which carries a three-year prison sentence, was lodged on Tuesday against hundreds of people detained this week before the Muslim day of prayer on Friday, when the largest demonstrations calling for Assad’s overthrow are typically seen.
“Mass arrests are continuing across Syria in another violation of human rights and international conventions,” said Rami Abdelrahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The campaign intensified after a tank-backed army unit, led by Assad’s brother Maher, last week shelled and machinegunned into submission the old quarter of Deraa, cradle of the six-week-old uprising. Assad said the army would end its mission in Deraa “very soon”, according to the semi-official al-Watan newspaper, playing down the uprising there and the army’s response, which Washington has condemned as “barbaric”.
