The Presidency of the European Union expresses its profound concern over the three-year prison terms to which Michel Kilo, a Syrian intellectual, and Mahmoud Issa, a Syrian political activist, were sentenced by a criminal court in Damascus on 13 May 2007.
The Presidency regrets that Michel Kilo and Mahmoud Issa have been sentenced merely for expressing their political views.
The Presidency calls on the Syrian Arab Republic to respect freedom of opinion and the right to a fair trial as laid down in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ratified by Syria in 1969. The Presidency urges the relevant Syrian bodies to reverse the judgements, drop the charges still pending in the Military Court of Damascus and release both Michel Kilo and Mahmoud Issa.
