International News
Syria frees Islamist preacher
Posted on: Thu February 18, 2010
International Highlights
DAMASCUS: Syria has freed an Islamist preacher on a presidential amnesty after he had been imprisoned for a year for inciting sectarian and racial division, a human rights group said on Wednesday.
The Syrian authorities freed the Syrian preacher Abdel Rahman Kuki yesterday evening thanks to an amnesty from the president, the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said.
Kuki was arrested on October 22 as he flew home to Syria from Qatar and a Damascus court jailed him for one year on February 10 for inciting sectarian or racial division, SOHR reported at the time. The rights watchdog praised the decision and called for a swift presidential amnesty for all political prisoners and prisoners of conscience in Syrian jails, adding any such move should also apply to those living abroad.
Courtesy : The News