WEST KURDISTAN, — Kurdish Organization for Defending Human Rights and Public Freedoms in Syria – DAD reports that the Political Security branch in Hassakeh arrested Juan Yusuf Muhammad who is from Qamishli, on Saturday 4 December 2010 after he had repeatedly responded to summons for investigation.
Juan Yusuf Muhammad has been deported from Cyprus along with others in June 2010. His passport was confiscated at the airport on return to Syria by the authorities and since then he has been summoned a number of times by political security, for questioning. He was arrested by political security in Hassakeh on 4 December 2010, and at the time of writing he continues to be subject to arbitrary arrest and is isolated from the outside world.
Kurdish Organization for Defending Human Rights and Public Freedoms in Syria – DAD strongly condemns and denounces the arrest of Juan Yusuf Muhammad, and expresses deep concern about his fate. They demand his immediate release, and the release of all prisoners of opinion and expression, currently held in prisons and the detention system. They call on security services to stop such arbitrary arrests that take place outside the law, and which constitute a flagrant violation of the rights and fundamental freedoms guaranteed by the Permanent Syria Constitution of 1973.
They call for an end to the State of Emergency and martial law declared in the country since 1963. The arrest of Juan Yusuf Muhammad is a violation of Syria’s obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ratified in 1969, that entered into force on 23 March 1976, and specifically Articles 9, 14, 19, 21 and 22.
International Support Kurds in Syria Association – SKS calls on Cyprus and the European Union to take note that Kurds who have been removed to Syria are imprisoned and persecuted on return, and to take responsibility for their decisions, by intervening with the Syrian authorities on behalf of the returnee. In this case we call on the Cyprus Government and the EU to enter into dialogue with the Syrian Government on behalf of Juan Yusuf Muhammad to secure his safe and continuing release.
The countries of the EU need to understand that Kurds as a nation in Syria are subjected to persecutory treatment, and when they escape and come to EU, they are looking for a place of safety. The international community can assist in this issue by working to find a solution that gives Kurds in Syria their rights to their life, citizenship, language, land, housing, education, culture.