Riad Ma’ses, head of the Association of Syrian Journalists, eulogized the death of the Journalist Mohamed Omar Khatib who died under torture in Sidnaya prison, like many Syrian journalists and intellectuals. “The Assad regime is trying through this brutal clampdown on journalists to break the will of their pens and to choke their words. Al Khatib spent two years and a half in Assad’s prisons, with no apparent charge but that because he tried to convey the truth and the voice of the Syrian people. He is not the only one to pay his live for speaking up against the Assad regime, as hundreds his colleagues are still jailed by Assad and are subjected to all kinds of torture.” The Assad regime has released dozens of terrorists from its prisons to recruit them to serve its goals, and to use them a justification to wage his war on the Syrian people. However, the international community has failed so far to take any practical steps to stop Assad’s crimes. The head of the Association of Syrian Journalists condemned earlier the regime’s killing of Syrian director Bilal Ahmad Bilal, saying that Al Khatib and Bilal were friends and were in the forefront of the peaceful movement against the Assad regime in Moadamiya near Damascus. Bilal’s camera was the first to document what’s happening since the early days of the revolution.” Ma’ses calls on all human rights organizations to put an immediate end to these brutal violations committed by the Assad regime’s against Syrian journalists. (Source: Syrian Coalition)
