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Woman Goes on Hunger Strike for Detained Husband

Majdoleen Hassan has been on hunger strike for 13 days to demand the release of her husband and opposition activist, Omar al-Shaar
Woman Goes on Hunger Strike for Detained Husband

Syrian activist and lawyer, Majdoleen Hassan, has been on a hunger strike for 13 days to demand the release of her husband and opposition activist, Omar al-Shaar from security detention.

 

Hassan, a member of the Syrian Civil Coalition, expressed her objection to the arrest of her husband along with Jajeea Nofal, a human rights activist, and Maria Shaabo, on the Syrian-Lebanese borders on October 31, 2014.

 

On her Facebook page, Hassan announced she will continue her hunger strike unconditionally until the release of her husband. She called relatives of detainees and abductees to employ every possible peaceful method to release them.

 

In her statement, she also called on local and international human rights organizations to work effectively on detainee cases to close the political detention files, especially after the exposure of the humiliating and inhumane conditions in prisons.

 

Hassan told Zaman al-Wasl that her husband was arrested on October 31 at the Syrian-Lebanese border, on his way back from a workshop with the human rights organization.

 

"It is his second detention. He was detained for almost eight months on November 11, 2013, and was charged with terrorism at the anti-terrorism court," she said.

 

She explained that detaining her husband was a part of the systematic plan to empty the country of its educated activists.

 

Hassan intends to carry on her hunger strike through legal and peaceful means, despite the fact that she is convinced it will not be enough and that the regime will not free her husband. She said her hunger strike can draw attention to the detainee crisis in Syria, and that  the hunger strike aims to remind people of the peaceful forms of struggle, and a return to the revolution.

 

The regime tried to pressure the activist by wiping her registration at the Lawyers’ Syndicate after her first demonstration. She was banned from travel and called many times for interrogation at the security branches.

 

Translated and edited by The Syrian Observer

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