Syrian Activists Michel Kilo and Anwar Al-Bunni Launch Hunger Strike

If we could only see inside the jail in Syria that holds Michel Kilo and Anwar Al-Bunni, two of the country's most prominent and thus most oppressed civil society activists. These intellectuals are in jail for the simple crime of signing a statement calling for better relations with Lebanon. It sounds like a sad joke, but it's actually an outrage. Yet the two men will not go quietly into the night:

Reporters Without Borders apoke about journalist and writer Michel Kilo, who began a hunger strike on 28 October 2006, along with lawyer Anwar Bunni and other political prisoners who were arrested in May after signing a joint statement calling for an improvement in relations with Lebanon.

The hunger strike, which is to last a week, is being held to protest against their prison conditions and the fact that the authorities did not execute a judicial order for Kilo's release on bail on 19 October.

Kilo's lawyer told Reporters Without Borders that his trial on the new charges that have been brought against him is scheduled to start on 31 October, before a Damascus criminal court.

Here's more on the new charges against Kilo:

In consequence of the approval of the Damascus court judge on 19 October 2006 to release the writer and intellectual Michel Kilo who was detained on account of Damascus-Beirut Declaration, the investigator charged Kilo with new charges. They include weakening the national commitment, degrading the respect of the state, encouraging hostile attacks, defamation, sparking sectarian hatred, etc. Consequently, the judge decided to keep him under detention. In addition, Mahmoud Essa, Khalil Hussein, and Soliman Shamar were charged with the same accusations and were re-arrested.

Comments

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What makes the private gathering particularly unusual is that it united not only activists from a range of political ideologies, but also from the external and internal opposition.

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