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General
Security withheld the British passport for the lawyer, Nizar Saghieh,
a dual British and Lebanese citizen, on March 2, 2010, without providing
any justification. The passport was returned on March 4, following the
direct intervention of Interior Minister Ziad Baroud. Nizar Saghieh had
recently represented four Iraqi refugees in their lawsuits against the
Lebanese state for illegal detention by General Security, resulting in
court orders for their immediate release.
The passport was withheld after a travel agency sent General Security 13
passports of government representatives and civil society activists,
including Saghieh’s, for approval to send them to Amman, Jordan, to seek
visas for travel to Bosnia-Herzegovina. The passports had to be sent to
Jordan because there is no Bosnian embassy in Lebanon. The trip’s purpose
was to study Bosnia’s experience in dealing with enforced disappearances
and mass graves.
When the travel agency went to retrieve the passports, General Security
returned the others but said, without providing any reason, that they
intended to summon Saghieh to come in person to retrieve his. The trip
for the entire group has been postponed as a result. General Security is
the security institution in charge of immigration and passport
formalities in Lebanon.
While the organizations said they were relieved that the passport was
returned following the minister’s intervention, they expressed concern
that General Security had withheld the passport to intimidate Saghieh.
The organizations also called on Lebanon to respect human rights lawyers
and to abide by the principles enunciated in the UN Declaration on Human
Rights Defenders, adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations
on December 9, 1998, particularly Article 12. That article calls on
governments to “take all necessary measures to ensure the protection by
the competent authorities of everyone, against any violence, threats,
retaliation, de facto or de jure adverse discrimination, pressure or any
other arbitrary action as a consequence of his or her legitimate
exercise” of their rights as a human rights defender.
The organizations also urged the bar associations of Beirut and Northern
Lebanon to ensure that their members are not harassed for their work as
lawyers.
Background:
Saghieh has worked on a number of human rights issues, including arbitrary
detention of refugees, access to information for the families of persons
forcibly disappeared during Lebanon’s civil war, and censorship. Most
recently, he successfully represented the four Iraqi refugees in separate
lawsuits against the state, seeking their immediate release from
detention at the General Security jail after they had finished serving
sentences [rf open letter to Lebanese government]. General Security has
released only one of the four despite the court decisions calling for
their immediate release.
Saghieh’s activism has caused him trouble with General Security in the
past. In 2003, General Security issued an order prohibiting him from
entering General Security buildings or conducting any “formality” in it.
The order remains in place even though there is no basis under Lebanese
law for such an order. The order was issued after Saghieh had acted as
legal counsel for Frontiers Center, a non-governmental organization
acting mainly on behalf of refugees, in the context of the harassment of
the center’s director, Samira Trad.
The Lebanese government should investigate the seizure of a human rights lawyer’s
passport by General Security, a group of 16 Lebanese and international
human rights organizations said today.
.
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Urging the authorities to :
To investigate
the seizure of a human rights lawyer’s passport by General Security, a
group of 16 Lebanese and international human rights organizations said
today.
·
Put an end to any acts of harassment, including
at the judicial level, against
Haytham El-Maleh and more generally against all human rights
defenders in Syria;
·
Conform with the provisions of the UN Declaration
on Human Rights Defenders, adopted by the General Assembly of the United
Nations on December 9, 1998, especially its Article 1, which states that
“everyone has the right, individually and in association with others, to
promote and to strive for the protection and realization of human rights
and fundamental freedoms at the national and international levels”, and
Article 12.2, which provides that “the State shall take all necessary
measures to ensure the protection by the competent authorities of
everyone, individually and in association with others, against any
violence, threats, retaliation, de facto or de jure adverse
discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary action as a consequence
of his or her legitimate exercise of the rights referred to in the present
Declaration”;
·
Ensure in all circumstances respect for human
rights and fundamental freedoms in accordance with international human
rights standards and international instruments ratified by the Syrian Arab Republic.
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President
His Excellency Bashar
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al
Rashid Street,
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+963 11 332 3410
Minister of Defence
His Excellency General,
Hassan Ali Turkmani,
Ministry of Defence,
O mayyad Square,
Damascus, Syrian Arab
Republic,
Fax:
+963 11 223 7842
Minister of Justice
His Excellency Mr. Ahmad Hamod
Younes,
Mazeh “Otstrad”,
Damascus, Syrian Arab
Republic,
Fax:
+963 11 666 2460
Minister of Foreign Affairs,
His Excellency Wallid
Mu’allim,
Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
al-Rashid Street, Damascus,
Syrian Arab Republic,
Fax:
+963 11 332 7620
Minister of Interior
His Excellency Major Sa'id
Mohamed Samour
Ministry of Interior
‘Abd al-Rahman Shahbandar
Street
Damascus, Syrian Arab
Republic
Fax: +963 11 222 3428
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