AMMAN-
A prominent leftist writer Akram al-Bunni was abducted by Syrian intelligence agencies from outside a Damascus hotel on Saturday, opposition activists said.
Bunni, who has spent two decades as a political prisoner, was kidnapped by an intelligence division run by Hafez Makhlouf, a cousin of President Bashar al-Assad, added the opposition.
According to his brother Anwar al-Bunni, Akram had riled the authorities by publicly supporting a democratic alternative to the four-decade rule of the Assad family.
“This regime has not been satisfied that it stole 20 years of Akram’s life and the effect that left on his health,” Anwar al-Bunni told a foreign news agency on Sunday from Damascus.
“We are trying to get medicine to him. He has a heart condition,” he added.
He said his brother had opted to remain in Damascus despite the systematic persecution of dissidents since the uprising against Al Assad erupted with pro-democracy demonstrations in March 2011.
Activists and human rights organisation say tens of thousands of Syrians who peacefully protested against Assad have been arrested since the uprising began and the fate of many of them is unknown.
Fighting has killed more than 140,000 people – more than 7,000 of them children – according to the Britain-based,pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, and is destabilising the country’s neighbours.
“The regime is going around seeking local truces with armed groups while it arrests peaceful dissidents like Akram. Whom does it consider as its real enemy?” Anwar al-Bunni said, referring to recent ceasefires in and around Damascus.
The Christian al-Bunni family is well known in Syria for its dogged opposition to the Assad family’s rule.
The four Bunni brothers, one sister and two of their spouses have spent 70 years among them as political prisoners.
Akram al-Bunni spent a total of 20 years in prison under the rule of Assad and his late father, Hafez al-Assad, for his writings and political affiliations.