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A few weeks ago, a five-year
sentence was passed down in Syria
to attorney Anwar al-Banni under the declared pretext of “harming the country’s
reputation.” Under the same pretext, in a television interview, the attorney of
Mr. al-Banni who is also the defense attorney for Mr. Michel Kilo, said the
latter is facing the threat of execution. Hence, the situation has graduated to
the status of caricature.
It may be very difficult
to deal with such matters with a straight face because such stances could
easily be ridiculed. However, the personal fate of each of these prisoners and
their family’s suffering is what stops us from poking fun. The problem is that
there are dozens of Syrians who have spent a horrendous number of years in
prison on similar charges. By the time they were finally set free, their lives
and the lives of their families had already been completely destroyed, which is
nothing less than an execution.
Furthermore, arrests
based on charges such as these and authenticating these accusations in a court
of law in order to cancel out the arbitrariness of the arrest is also extremely
dangerous. The alleged and exercised legal cover used here for such issues
distorts one of the most important pillars for social struggle, which is having
institutions that in some way play a role of mediation
so as to avoid falling into direct and immediate violence.
This can be a definition
of the role of the law and independent judiciary. Even if they rule according
to the logic of the standing authority, its function is not primarily to
justify this authority’s actions, especially by a
superficial way. It is also to create a “cooling down” space that would oblige
the authority to put breaks on its tendency to crack down, which comes from any
use of force. It also declares the red lines for confronting its opponents,
which is also a supposed function. It is wise that these lines have varying
degrees. So, for courts to receive files marked “harming the country’s
reputation” and then to assumedly play their role through examining these files
before issuing sentences with no legal backbone in any general legal logic is a
double violation that only reinforces the arbitrary nature of such arrests.
From another position,
the fact that the people are helpless in doing anything to confront such
measures is also another source of danger in society just like it is for any
authority to resort to this style of “like it or leave it.”
Protests over the
arbitrary arrest of attorney al-Banni and Michel Kilo and his companions have
not subsided, just like the protests over the continued arrest of Dr. Aref Dalila,
which were carried out because of a deep resentment against these truly
shameful arrests. The protests came from inside Syria, which means a heroic risk
for its organizers. They also came from abroad, whereby international human
rights organizations and cultural forums and resistance groups in the Arab
world and abroad all declared their protest over the arrest of these men and
the resort to the unlimited emergency laws. The more these positions
strengthened in expression, the more obstinate the ruling authority took on an
almost “gangster” approach, whereby it feared that its status and prestige
would be undermined or weakened.
Finally, seemingly yet
another justification surfaces, which tries to link between this repeated wave
of oppression and the Syrian leadership turning its attention to the internal
situation and considering it a priority. This aspect of the situation
represents the most dangerous aspect of them all, because it supposes that its
message to the domestic front can be achieved through rounding up all those who
sing to a different tune, and silencing them. The truth is that the logic
governing this behavior allows for the country to be weakened in the face of all
forms of foreign intervention, which will inevitably present itself as the only
possible and remaining salvation. If the Syrian leadership is preparing for a
lengthy battle with an American aggression, which may at any time turn into a
military aggression in many forms and scenarios, its first order of business
must be to establish an internal front that can accommodate all those who want
to wage this battle alongside it, but which do not “blindly endorse” the
government either in the methods of confrontation or in any other ways.
This is not a moral call
for openness. It is a political call for a declaration of emergency in the
country, but not like the one that has been declared—that is, as an endorsement
of the oppressive regime—but as a plea for action that calls on society to take
its place in this confrontation and show willingness to adapt to the
requirements of such as process, first and foremost to relinquish some
authorities.
The first sign of this
relinquishment would be to cancel the emergency law in effect since 1963.
Second would be to call on the national oppositionists to take their places in
decision making positions. That’s right—Michel Kilo’s place is in an active
ministerial position in an effective ministry with authorities. The same goes
for Aref Dalila.
If there is an all-out
confrontation coming, or even the intention of keeping the current level of
confrontation going, these are some successful methods of waging it and some
signs that must be sent as a promise of more to come. This is especially true
since the overall structure of the authority is full of elements that do not
let anyone believe it or trust in its promises or rhetoric. It needs mediators
and practical steps of this sort…before the people’s legitimate resentment over
their hardship and misery takes over their sound sense of patriotism.
This article was
originally published in Arabic in al-Hayat, and translated into English
by the Alternative Information Center (AIC) by request
of the author.
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