BEIRUT, Lebanon: Syrian authorities have released a Syrian Kurdish Christian pastor more than two weeks after he was detained over social media posts, a church official told AFP on Tuesday.
“Pastor Nihad Hassan was released yesterday evening,” the official from a Kurdish church in Lebanon said, requesting anonymity to discuss the matter.
Hassan “will return to Lebanon,” where he usually lives, “because staying in Syria is dangerous for him and his family,” the official added.
Last week, the Kurdish Church in Lebanon had said on its Facebook page that Syrian authorities had arrested Hassan, “pastor of the Kurdish Evangelical Church in Beirut, in connection with certain social media posts attributed to him.”
A local Syrian official had told AFP that Hassan was detained in Afrin, a historically Kurdish-majority region in northwest Syria, over allegations of “inciting religious hatred” on social media.
At least one post on what had appeared to be Hassan’s Facebook account seemed to be directed against Muslims.
According to the church statement, Hassan is originally from the Afrin region and turned to Christianity in 2008.
A church official had previously told AFP that Hassan was arrested on July 19, and had recently made frequent visits to northern Syria where he had intended to re-establish himself.
Syria’s new authorities have pledged to protect minority groups in the multi-confessional, multi-ethnic country.
But those communities have expressed increased safety concerns, particularly after sectarian bloodshed last year and a deadly suicide bombing in a Damascus church that fueled fears among Christians.
