KURDWATCH, September 1, 2010—On August 27, 2010, members of the State Security Service arrested Imad Iskan Ahmad (b. 1975, married, six children) in al‑Tanuriyah (al‑Qamishli district). Thus far the reasons for the arrest remain unknown.

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KURDWATCH, August 29, 2010—KurdWatch has at hand the protocol of the State Security Service’s hearing of Khalid MaÊ¿mu Kanju [download PDF], the State Security Service’s letter to the prosecution in Damascus [download PDF], as well as the verdict against Kanju [download PDF]. Kanju was deported from Germany to Syria on September 1, 2009; in the meantime he has returned to Germany. From the documents it becomes evident that, among other things, Kanju was convicted due to his political activities in exile. Moreover the intelligence service protocol indicates that Kanju gave the names of friends and acquaintances who took part in campaigns in Germany that were critical of the regime. In a conversation with KurdWatch, Kanju explained that he had divulged the names under torture. He additionally reports that the State Security Service confronted him with information from his German asylum file. Thus the intelligence service knew that in his hearing before the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees he testified that during his military service he had passed secret information along to the US Embassy. He only confirmed this information under torture. Kanju suspects that the immigration authority of his district passed information from his asylum file on to the Syrian Embassy. [Further information on the case]

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KURDWATCH, August 26, 2010—On August 24, 2010, the single military judge in al‑Qamishli interrogated Muhammad Ê¿Abdi SaÊ¿dun. SaÊ¿dun testified that he is a member of the politburo of the Kurdish Freedom Party in Syria (Azadî). He further stated that his articles, which were published on the internet as well as in the party’s official publication, did not serve to provoke civil-war-like conditions. Rather, he intended his articles to call attention to the rights of the Kurds. The hearing was postponed until September 5, 2010. [Further information on the case]

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KURDWATCH, August 25, 2010—On August 22, 2010, the second military investigating judge transferred Ê¿Abdulhafiz Ê¿Abdulrahim Ê¿Abdulrahman’s case to the third single military judge in Aleppo. Ê¿Abdulrahman is charged pursuant to Article 288 of the criminal code. [Further information on the case]

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KURDWATCH, August 24, 2010—After being deported from Norway, Ê¿Abdulkarim Husayn Husayn (b. 1956, married, four children) was arrested at the Damascus airport on August 19, 2010. He was first transferred to the Emigration and Passport Authority and then forwarded to the Political Security Directorate. Husayn, who suffers from diabetes, is currently being held at the named security service’s al‑Faihaʾ Prison in Damascus. Prior to deportation, he had been a board member of the Association of Syrian Kurds in Norway (KKSN).

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KURDWATCH, August 23, 2010—Muhammad Buzan (b. 1958, married, eight children) was released from custody in Aleppo on August 14, 2010. On February 13, 2010, Buzan was arrested in Ê¿Ayn al‑ʿArab (Kobanî), together with five other people, before the start of a demonstration by Democratic Union Party (PYD) supporters demanding the release of Abdullah Öcalan. Buzan was first imprisoned at the Political Security Directorate in Aleppo, and later moved to Aleppo’s civil prison.

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KURDWATCH, August 19, 2010—At the beginning of July 2010, the ophthalmologist Mustafa Ê¿Abdulfatah Ê¿Uji (b. 1975, married, two children) was told at the Bab al‑Hawa border point on the Syrian-Turkish border near Aleppo that he was not allowed to leave the country and should contact the Political Security Directorate in al‑Hasakah. At the same time, Ê¿Uji learned that the dentist Ê¿Isa Ê¿Abdulhalim Shaikhu (b. 1974, married, two children) had also been placed under a travel ban. From October 22–24, 2009, both men, along with other Kurdish doctors from Syria, had taken part in the Mesopotamian Health Days in Diyarbakır (Turkey). The Mesopotamian Health Days is a convention for Kurdish doctors from Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Iran, and Europe. Members of the Political Security Directorate in al‑Hasakah had already interrogated Mustafa Ê¿Abdulfatah Ê¿Uji about the matter in March 2010.

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KURDWATCH, August 16, 2010—As previously reported, at the beginning of May lists with the names of people living abroad were forwarded to the civil register offices in al‑Hasakah province with the stipulation that those listed could only be issued identification papers and other documents if they reported to the State Security Service. In the meantime KurdWatch has obtained a copy of the complete list of all those affected from al‑Hasakah province—a total of 287 people—as well as a copy of the corresponding letter from the Syrian Interior Minister. From the latter it is evident that the people listed will receive no personal documents, neither in person nor via family members or attorneys. This also means that they cannot apply for a passport via Syrian agencies abroad, and, if they wish to marry, they will not receive any papers from the appropriate civil register office.
Contrary to previous assumptions, the list does not originate from the State Security Service, but from the Interior Ministry. Nevertheless the majority of the people listed must, in fact, appear before the State Security Service; other intelligence services are seldom mentioned. The Interior Ministry’s letter states that the people named, who have fled Syria and are hiding, were sought for »crimes against the state«. Indeed, the majority of those listed are politically active people—Kurds in particular are named, but also some Arabs and Christians. Some of them already left Syria as children. In light of this, the decision not to issue any papers to the group of people named must be understood as a sanction against people considered oppositional.
It is striking that not all people named on the individual lists from Amudah, al-Qahtaniyah, and al-Qamishli also appear on the complete list. This can presumably be explained by the fact that the lists were compiled on various dates unknown to us. As the lists are regularly updated »inconsistencies«, as described above, can occur.
A translation of the letter from the Interior Ministry and a translation of the complete list of names can be downloaded as a PDF file [download PDF].

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KURDWATCH, August 13, 2010 – On August 9, the third single military judge in Aleppo decided to release Dr. Muhammad Khalil Ê¿Abdi from custody. Ê¿Abdi is charged pursuant to Article 288 of the Criminal Code; the proceedings are pending before the court. [Further information on the case]

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KURDWATCH, August 8, 2010—On the morning of July 27, 2010, the Essen immigration authority had a family of six deported to Damascus. Hamza Hassan (b. 1984) and Khalid Hassan (b. 1967) were arrested by Syrian security forces upon arrival at the Damascus airport. Their current whereabouts are unknown. Of those deported, three—Hamza, Mariam (b. 1989), and Imad Hassan (b. 1988)—were born in Germany. Their parents had petitioned for asylum in Germany and during the process had provided a false identity. Originally they had claimed to come from Lebanon and only later revealed their Syrian citizenship. Apparently Hamza and Khalid Hassan were arrested because they committed a criminal offense in Germany. It is unclear who informed the Syrian security forces of their offense.

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KURDWATCH, August 7, 2010—On July 28, 2010, Fewaz Mihyedîn Hesen (b. 1979, married, six children) was released from prison in Aleppo early following a request to that effect. On June 21, 2010, the military tribunal there had sentenced him to one year and three months imprisonment for membership in an illegal organization in connection with Article 267. Among other things, he was charged with participating in the Newroz festivities of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) on March 21, 2009.
After his arrest by members of the Political Security Directorate in Ê¿Amudah on August 8, 2009, Hesen was first brought to al‑Hasakah, where he was tortured with blows to the soles of his feet (falaqa method). Subsequently he was brought to Damascus where he was detained in the Political Security Directorate’s al‑Faihaʾ prison and in the Ê¿Adra prison. Hesen spent the last five months of his imprisonment in the Aleppo prison. Regular contact with his family was only possible there

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