Kurdish politician Issa Hesso detained in Syria

QAMISHLI, Western Kurdistan, — Issa Ibrahim Hesso, born in 1952 and from the village Gurbawee near Qamishli, Kurdish politician and one of the Democratic Union Party – PYD leaders, was arrested by state security officials on 16 October 2010. He had been summoned repeatedly by Political Security branch in Qamishli. State Security Branch now has him in detention but there is no information about the charges that he will face or why he was arrested.

Issa Ibrahim Hesso is a member of the Council of PYD. He had been arrested three times previously, most recently on 2 November 2007 following a demonstration condemning the Turkish military intervention in Southern Kurdistan (Kurdistan Iraq), and was charged with belonging to an unauthorized association, and inciting riots and sectarian strife. He was then sentenced to a year and a month.

He is a respected, patriotic and very popular man who has been working peacefully for democracy and defending human rights. He has been actively engaged with the issues for Kurds at a time of collusion and alliances in the Middle East against the Kurdish people, for example, Iran and Turkey are using their bombs inside the Kurdistan region of Iraq, and Turkey is working together with Syria to escalate and intensify the oppression of the Kurdish people so as to continue to withhold their basic human rights.

International Support Kurds in Syria Association – SKS joins with other human rights organisations, Kurdish and others, who have made a call for his release and who strongly, condemn his arrest. SKS invites other human rights organisations to take a stand against his detention.