The Assyrian Monitor for Human Rights and Justice for
Detainees in Syria have issued a report about the Syrian Christian political
detainees in the period between March 2011 and December 2015. Released on
December 10 in Arabic and English, the report presents the cases of 38 Syrian
Christian political and rights activists who were detained in Syria. The names
include Gabriel Kourieh, the head of the Assyrian Democratic Organization
politburo; Khalil Maatouk, the executive director of the Syrian Centre for Legal
Studies and Research and founding member of the Syria Bar Association; Youssef
Abdelke, the Syrian and international painter and Catherine Jries Altalli,
lawyer and human rights activist among many others. The report started by an
overview about the history and geographic distribution of Christians in Syria
before 2011 and up till today in addition to the abuses against them. The
report maintained that there are more than 450 detainees in the Syrian
government prisons since five years. This report is the first joint initiative
between The Sweden-based Assyrian Monitor for Human Rights and the US-based
Justice for Detainees in Syria.
