Party leader arrested in Aleppo

The spokesman of a political opposition party was arrested in the northern city of Aleppo on Saturday evening and taken to an unknown location, according to human rights activists. Agents of the military secret service detained Samir Nashar, 60, at his office at 9 pm local time without giving reasons for the arrest, a spokesperson for the Syrian Human Rights Organisation (SHRO) said. "We’re calling for the immediate release of Mr Samir Nashar, who has a serious heart condition," said Bassam Ishaik of the SHRO. "We’re also demanding that the campaign of pressuring opposition figures stop." The government gave no comment on the reported arrest. Nashar, the spokesman of the Syrian Free National Party, a small opposition party established a year ago, recently returned from a meeting of exiled opposition figures in Washington, DC. On his return to Syria, government authorities banned him from further travel abroad and secret service police in Aleppo summoned him for questioning last week. Two weeks ago, another activist who had attended the Washington meeting, Ammar Qurabi, was arrested and released after two days. Last week, Syrian authorities banned unauthorised meetings between Syrian nationals and US officials, in apparent reaction to growing cooperation between Syrian opposition forces and US institutions. In the past 10 days, arrests and interrogation of political activists have increased markedly in the capital, Damascus. One family saw three of its members arrested on 18 March, with no news of them since. Ali Abdullah and his two sons, Omer and Mohammed, were detained on grounds of criticising the state security court, attempting to form a student political discussion group and criticising the state emergency laws, respectively. "Abdullah's wife and daughter are now alone and without support," noted Ishaik. On 25 March, US-based Human Rights Watch issued a statement calling for President Bashar al-Assad to “end the harassment and persecution of human rights defenders and to release Ali Abdullah and his two sons…immediately and without condition”. The first half of March saw three major demonstrations in Damascus, organised by different opposition groups. On 9 March, several hundred protesters demanded an end to the emergency laws that allow for the trial of political opponents in military security courts. Five days later, on the two-year anniversary of violent clashes between Kurds and security forces, two demonstrations were held in the capital in which protestors decried Syrian Kurds’ lack of rights. The protests were followed by several arrests, and some observers say the recent clampdown could be an attempt by the authorities to pre-empt future demonstrations. "It seems like a warning to the opposition," said Ishaik.