(Geneva, February 16, 2015) – The Syrian government should immediately free the prominent Syrian human rights defenders Mazen Darwish, Hani Al-Zitani and Hussein Gharir, 71 human rights groups said today, on the third anniversary of their arrest. The three men have been arbitrarily deprived of their liberty on the basis of their human rights activities.

Alkarama welcomes the release of Peter Greste on 1 February 2015 after 400 days of arbitrary detention. It urges the Egyptian authorities to drop charges against Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed, detained with Mr Greste, who have been released on bail today pending retrial on 23 February 2015. Alkarama also invites the Egyptian authorities to open a thorough and impartial investigation into the arbitrary executions by the army of four journalists, Mick Deane, Ahmed Abdel Gawad, Mosab El Shami Rassd and Habiba Ahmed Abd Elaziz during Raba'a and El Nahda Squares' events on 14 August 2013.

Alkarama welcomes the public call for the immediate release of Said Jadad, after several urgent appeals sent to the United Nations Special Procedures.

The public call for release is published below in its original version.

Oman: UN experts call for the immediate release of prominent rights activist, as reprisals continue unchecked

A year after the two communications – on the arbitrary nature of Omani Parliamentary, Al Ma'amari's arrest and detention – sent by Alkarama in 2013 to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) and the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), both issued their decision stating that Al Ma'amari's detention was arbitrary and his right to freedom of expression violated. They consequently urged the Omani authorities to release him immediately.

On 27 January 2015, Alkarama sent an urgent appeal to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture (SRT) regarding the case of Abdelrahman Mahmoud Omar Kamal, a 23-year-old civil engineer and charity worker arrested by the Homeland Security on 22 September 2014 and secretly detained and tortured for 119 days. He is still detained and at high risk of ill-treatment, while his family was only allowed to see him once.

Alkarama welcomes the release of Abdullah Abdulhallem Abdulhallem Zalat on 26 January 2015, for whom it had sent an urgent appeal to the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) asking for his release.

On 22 January 2015, Alkarama sent an urgent appeal to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association regarding the arrest and incommunicado detention of Bassem Al Rawabedah and Thabet Assaf.

On 22 January 2015, Alkarama sent an urgent appeal to the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) regarding the case of Abdullah Abdulhallem Abdulhallem Zalat, a 31-year-old civil engineer abducted by the Egyptian Homeland Security forces on 16 January 2015 and has been missing since. Alkarama believes that he is at high risk of being subjected to ill-treatment whilst being secretly detained by the intelligence services.

On 22 January 2015, Alkarama sent an urgent appeal to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) and several other Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council regarding the case of Said Jadad, a 56-year-old prominent Human Rights Defender (HRD) arbitrarily arrested and secretly detained at least four times in the past two years for his peaceful activism for justice and human rights.

Awad Al Hayki, a 33 year-old Yemeni national has been detained in Al Qasim Prison since 18 October 2010, the day he was extradited by Qatar to the Saudi authorities. Detained in solitary confinement for almost a year, without being able to communicate with his family, he has been subjected to severe torture. To date, Al Hayiki has never been charged.