Detainee dies from torture, activist claims

The family of a Syrian man, detained a few months ago on charges of belonging to a banned Islamic group, say he died under torture while in police custody. "There were signs of torture on his body," said Anwar al-Bunni, lawyer and member of the Human Rights Association in Syria, having spoken to the family. This contradicts the official government account of the affair, according to which the prisoner died of a stroke. According to a statement from al-Bunni issued last week, the authorities returned the body of Mohammed Shaher Heisah, 36, to his family after Heisah allegedly died of natural causes while in prison. Heisah was arrested near the city of Hama, some 250km north of Damascus, some six months ago. Al-Bunni noted that Heisah had been arrested for "belonging to an Islamic group" and that his family had been informed by security agents that he "died of a stroke”. There has been no official reaction to the family's claims from Damascus, which has a “long-established record of torture”, according to New York-based Human Rights Watch. Meanwhile, the Attasi Forum for Democratic Dialogue, a local civil-society group, called on human rights organisations of all stripes to support a campaign to free Ali Abdullah, a member of the forum who was recently re-arrested by state security. Abdullah had been arrested in May 2005 after reading a statement by the head of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group at a private gathering and released in November along with 190 other political prisoners. In a recent statement, the Attasi forum called upon all "civil associations and judicial organisations in Syria, Arab and foreign countries to support their efforts" to free Abdullah, who was arrested again in March 2006. Since coming to power in 2000, President Bashar al-Assad has freed hundreds of political prisoners and passed laws aimed at liberalising the state-controlled economy. Rights groups, however, complain that the Syrian leader has simultaneously clamped down on critics of the regime.