AI: Release Syria rights activists
2012-10-04 20:53
Beirut - Advocacy group Amnesty International called on Thursday on the Syrian authorities to either charge or release two human rights activists detained in Damascus earlier in the week.
Lawyer Khalil al-Maatouq and his colleague Mohammed Thatha were arrested while on their way to the office on Tuesday, according to their employer, the Syrian Centre for Legal Studies and Research.
"The families of these men have a right to know what has happened to them," said Ann Harrison, deputy director of Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa programme.
"If they are held, they should be released immediately and unconditionally unless they are charged with an internationally recognisable offence," she said in a statement.
Maatouq requires medical care for a serious lung condition, she added.
Thousands of people have been detained in Syria since the outbreak of a revolt against President Bashar Assad in March last year, many of them without charge, human rights groups say.
