Wednesday, April 20, 2011

You Can't Stop Those "Reforms" Now: Syrian opposition figure arrested in Homs



Mahmuod Issa held while students in Aleppo reportedly stage protest, a day after ministry says rallies must be licensed.

Al-Jazeera

"Syrian authorities have arrested opposition figure Mahmuod Issa in city of Homs, activists say, while reports of more detentions are coming out of a protest at the university in Aleppo.

"A patrol of the political security services arrested [government] opponent Mahmud Issa on Tuesday night in Homs after he gave an interview to Al Jazeera television," Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Wednesday.....

Activists said dozens of students demonstrated at the medical faculty at Aleppo University on Wednesday morning but were dispersed by security forces.

Suhair Atassi, a prominent rights activist in Damascus, said 37 students were arrested and beaten....

The emergency laws will be replaced with new legislation which critics fear will be equally repressive, and the interior ministry has passed a law stating that citizens must obtain permission to demonstrate.....

"The ones who decide policy are the security forces, headed of course by Bashar al-Assad, and this is what people are rebelling against ... The problem is primarily the issue of the immunity of prosecution the security forces enjoy and the overwhelming powers they have over all aspects of public life.""

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