The spiralling Syrian regime is yet again imposing its heavy hand on pro-democracy activists. People who dare challenge Damascus, the brave individuals who face persecution and yet persist to tell the truth, are being rounded up and thrown in jail.
And to imagine, that at one point in 2000, political prisoners were released and reforms were declared to liberalize the country. That dream ended in February 2001 and along with it, the so-called Damascus Spring.
Now the resistance hasn’t. But for Habib Saleh it means spending yet another three years of his life in a concrete cell for a crime he committed all those years ago. He is charged with weakening national sentiments. Whatever that means. This is his third arrest in seven years. The writer, the dissident, was arbitrarily arrested last year without explanation.
Saleh is a prisoner of conscience who dares speak against the ruling elite; who dares voice his opinion and challenge the status-quo. The very day he was released from prison was the day he started writing again.
“He was writing an article a day after coming out of prison. The Syrian authorities consider that he is breaking the rules imposed on subjects like religion, politics or repression on the part of the Syrian regime,” his wife told Reporters Without Borders.
