The Terrorism Criminal Court has postponed the sentencing hearing of Mazen Darwish to April 28. Darwish attended the hearing which was scheduled to decide the sentence in his case.
The next hearing is due to take place days before Darwish will receive the Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize, awarded by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
UNESCO announced it will honor Darwish with the prize during the celebration of the World Press Freedom Day hosted in Latvia on May 3.
In a statement, UNESCO said: "the jury recommended Mazen Darwish in recognition of the work he has carried out in Syria for more than 10 years at great personal sacrifice – enduring a travel ban, harassment, as well as repeated detention and torture".
Darwish and his colleagues, Hani Zitani and Hussein Ghureir, were detained by Syrian authorities in February 2012 following a raid in Damascus. Tried under the controversial Anti-Terrorism Act, they face a potential sentence of 15 years hard labor imprisonment on charges of "promoting terrorist acts".
Translated and edited by The Syrian Observer
