Syria: Ailing journalist Nizar Nayyouf still in solitary confinement

September 14, 1999

His Excellency Farouq al-Sharaa’
Minister of Foreign Affairs
c/o His Excellency Ambassador Walid al-Moualem
Embassy of the Syrian Arab Republic
2215 Wyoming Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20008

Your Excellency,

I am writing to express concern about Nizar Nayyouf, a Syrian journalist, writer, and human rights activist who is currently serving a 10-year prison sentence in solitary confinement at Mezze military prison in Damascus. I would like to request a meeting with you later this month in New York to discuss his case.

Acting on reports about Mr. Nayyouf’s deteriorating health over the past year, our organization has issued numerous urgent appeals on his behalf to Syrian officials. On September 29 1998, Josh Friedman, a CPJ board member and journalist with the New York daily paper Newsday, hand-delivered an appeal to you at the United Nations, urging Mr. Nayyouf’s release on humanitarian grounds. At that time you assured Mr. Friedman that you would look into the matter. But since that time we have not heard from you about the Nayyouf case.

Mr. Nayyouf is a founding member of the independent Committees for the Defense of Democratic Freedoms and Human Rights in Syria (CDF). Until his arrest in January 1992, he served as editor-in-chief of its monthly journal,  Sawt al-Democratiyya .The Supreme State Security Court later convicted him of disseminating false information and holding membership in an unauthorized organization.

Mr. Nayyouf reportedly suffers from several serious ailments, including partial paralysis of his lower extremities, the result of torture he allegedly sustained while under interrogation. He is also said to suffer from kidney failure and deteriorating eyesight.

In September 1998, CPJ received disturbing information indicating that Mr. Nayyouf was suffering from Hodgkin’s disease, a form of cancer, and that Syrian authorities had refused him treatment unless he pledged to refrain from political activity and renounced alleged “false statements” that he had made about the human rights situation in Syria. In light of the Syrian government’s apparent refusal to allow independent medical experts to examine Mr. Nayyouf in prison, we remain gravely concerned about his health.

Our organization urges the Syrian government to release Nizar Nayyouf on humanitarian grounds. We further recommend that Your Excellency, as a gesture of good will, use your good offices to ensure that a professional, international medical delegation be permitted to visit Mr. Nayyouf in prison so that his colleagues around the world can be assured that he is receiving proper treatment for his various ailments.

I thank you for your prompt attention to this urgent humanitarian matter. I hope we will have an opportunity to discuss Nizar Nayyouf’s case with you during your expected visit to New York later this month, and I look forward to your reply.

Sincerely,

Ann K. Cooper
Executive Director


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His Excellency Farouq al-Sharaa’
Minister of Foreign Affairs
c/o His Excellency Ambassador Walid al-Moualem
Embassy of the Syrian Arab Republic
2215 Wyoming Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20008