Iran’s foreign minister has met embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and called for a solution to the ongoing civil war, as a rights group accused Damascus of waging “relentless, indiscriminate” attacks against its own people. Speaking in Damascus on Wednesday, Ali Akbar Salehi said the solution to the 18-month conflict lies “only in Syria and […]
Bahraini activist cleared of defamation
A Bahraini court has overturned a three-month jail sentence against activist Nabeel Rajab and cleared him of defamation charges, the state-run Bahrain News Agency reports. But Rajab will remain in prison, where he is serving a three-year term for taking part in anti-government protests.
Many of the victims in Syria strikes are children, Amnesty
Amnesty International said a 10-day visit to the embattled Syrian city of Aleppo found that many of the victims of government air and artillery strikes have been children, and others were waiting in long lines outside bakeries to buy scarce bread.
Syrian army ‘systematically’ murdering civilians, Amnesty
Amnesty International senior director Widney Brown describes the group’s findings to ABC’s TONY JONES on the escalating violence in Syria.
Syrian forces executing and burning residents of Idlib, report
Syrian forces are executing scores of suspected opposition sympathisers in the northern city of Idlib, often burning their bodies in piles or torching them in their homes then sending family members to find them, witnesses say.
Assad revives father's extreme torture methods in Syria
Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad has taken out the torture toolkit his father once employed as he engages in the most widespread and appalling abuses his country has suffered in decades in an effort to put down a year-old rebellion. “In terms of the number of people being tortured, and the level of torture and the […]
Amnesty International accuses Syrian regime of routine torture
Amnesty International said Wednesday that Syrian security forces routinely torture people detained during the uprising. In a report, the London-based group said detainees are beaten with sticks, cords and rifle butts and sometimes suspended inside tires for further beatings. Others are sexually assaulted or killed.
Amnesty International: 77 children killed in Syrian unrest
Amnesty International reveals to Channel 4 News that they have the names of 77 children who’ve been killed in the recent violence plus reports of a third child tortured to death.
Syria jails a 79 year old activist for 3 years
A Syrian military court today sentenced a 79-year-old lawyer and human rights activist, who campaigned for decades for an end to emergency law, to three years in prison on charges of “weakening national morale”, defence lawyers said. “This is tragic. Haitham Maleh is an old and ill man,” one lawyer said, while another feared that […]
Amnesty tells Israel to stop ‘harassing’ Palestinian activist
Amnesty International called on Israeli authorities on Wednesday to end what it called “harassment” of an Arab human rights activist held on suspicion of spying for the Lebanese Hezbollah militia. Amnesty said Ameer Makhoul, an Arab citizen of Israel, has been denied legal advice while in custody. The Israeli Prisons Authority referred an AFP query […]