His Excellency Bashar al-Assad
President of Syria
Presidential Palace
Damascus
Arab Republic of Syria

Vienna, 21 June 2001

Your Excellency,

The International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors and media executives, condemns in the strongest possible terms the abduction of Nizar Nayyouf, a journalist and human rights activist, by Syrian intelligence agents on 20 June.

According to information before IPI, six armed men abducted Nayyouf on an open street as he went for medical tests to his doctor’s office in Damascus. The men, apparently Syrian intelligence agents, threw a hood over his head and took him to an unknown destination.

Nayyouf’s abduction occurred on the day the journalist planned to meet with Western human rights groups and release information about alleged crimes committed by Syrian intelligence agents.

On 6 May, Nizar Nayyouf was released from jail after serving nine years of a ten-year prison sentence, but has remained under house arrest. A leading member of the banned Independent Committee for the Defence of Democratic Freedoms and Human Rights in Syria and editor-in-chief of its monthly newsletter, Sawt-al-Democratiyya (“Democracy’s Voice”), he was arrested on 10 January 1992 and charged with disseminating false information and belonging to an unauthorised organisation.

While in prison, Nayyouf was tortured and beaten so severely that he is partially paralysed from the waist down and nearly blind. In addition to Hodgkin’s disease, he is suffering from liver disease, dermatitis, and ulcers.

IPI urges Your Excellency to ensure that Nizar Nayyouf is released immediately and unconditionally and that he is allowed to exercise his right to freedom of opinion and expression without further harassment. We further urge that he be freed from house arrest, issued a passport and allowed to travel abroad so that he can receive proper medical treatment.

We thank you for your attention.

Yours sincerely,

Johann P. Fritz
Director