DAMASCUS, 16 February 2005 — Syria’s State Security Court jailed 15 Syrian Kurds for up to three years yesterday on charges of seeking a breakaway state, lawyers said. Four were sentenced to three years in jail for “seeking to instigate civil war” in addition to charges of belonging to separatist factions, attempting to split territory off from Syria, and fomenting ethnic strife, lawyer Faisal Bader said.
The rest were jailed for two years. The 15 were initially sentenced to five years in prison but the court reduced the punishment, lawyers said.
“This ruling is illegal because it’s issued by an unconstitutional court... I demand the release of the defendants,” Bader said. He charged that the trial was based on statements obtained through torture.
