Syria intends to deport seven Arab-Iranian refugees to Iran!

The Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) is deeply concerned for the lives of seven political refugees of Arab descent from Iran, who some time ago found refuge in Syria and have just recently been arrested. As politically active members of the Arab population of the region of Khusistan (southwest Iran on the Persian Gulf) they face the threat of torture or the death penalty. T he seven men have been registered as refugees by the UN refugee organisation (UNHCR). For the Society for Threatened Peoples International their president, Tilman Zülch, wrote today to the governments of the 18 Arab states and to the most important media of the Arab world with the request to intervene with the Syrian head of state, Bashar al Assad, for the release of these political prisoners. Since the Syrian regime is persecuting Kurds and now also Assyro-Chaldeans it is abandoning the policy of solidarity with the persecuted Arab population of Iran in favour of a close cooperation with the regime of Mahmud Ahmadinajad. The inhabitants of Khusistan belong for the most part to the Arab majority there, which according to various calculations numbers two to five million. This ethnic group has been discriminated and persecuted for many years. The Islamic Republic of Iran is trying by various means to drive the Arabs out of Khusistan. The following political prisoners are threatened with extradition to Iran:

- Jamal Abidi, 32 Jahre, arrested in Damascus

- Mansour Sawari, 34 Jahre, arrested in Damascus

- Isa Alýasin 30 Jahre, arrested in Damascus

– Ahmed Abdaljabar, 20 Jahre, arrested in Damascus

- Faleh Abdallah Almansouri, arrested in Damascus, Dutch citizen

- Rasoul Mazraah, arrested in Damascus

- Taher Mazraah, arrested in Damascus

One further refugee, Said Odeh Saki, has already been deported from Syria. Nothing is known about his fate.