Syrians in US Targeted By Syrian Embassies

Amnesty International

Posted by: Christoph Koettl, October 3, 2011 at 5:00 PM

While the United Nations Security Council keeps bickering and remains inactive, Syrian authorities go global with their repression of free speech and assembly.

By now it’s well documented by both NGOs and the United Nations that crimes committed by Syrian security forces against peaceful protesters may amount to crimes against humanity. Since mid-March, more than 2,200 people are reported to have been killed and thousands of others have been arrested.

However, now Syrian authorities are taking it to the next level. In more than four years of working on international human rights crises, I have never seen a foreign government systematically targeting peaceful protesters globally, which is exactly what the Syrian government is doing.

Meet Malek Jandali from Atlanta, Georgia, a 38-year-old pianist and composer. After he performed at a pro-reform demonstration in front of the White House in July, his mother and father, aged 66 and 73 respectively, were attacked at their home in Homs, Syria. Malek told us his parents were beaten and locked in a bathroom while their apartment was looted. The agents told his parents:

“This is what happens when your son mocks the government.”

They have since fled the country.

Malek’s case is not unique.

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The campaign of harassment by Syrian authorities is not limited to the United States. We know of more than 30 activists in eight countries – Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, UK and the USA – who say that they have faced intimidation from embassy officials and others. In some cases, relatives in Syria have as a result apparently been exposed to harassment, detention and even torture.

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