Mazen DarwishFive leading activists of the Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression, accused of promoting terrorism, stand trial on Sunday at the Counter Terrorism Criminal Court in Damascus.
The five men --- Mazen Darwish, Hussein Gharir, Hani Zaitani, Mohammad Mansur Al-Omari and Abdul-Rahman Hamada --- were arrested on 16 February 2012 during a raid of the Centre's premises. Since then, they have often been kept in solitary detention, denied access to their relatives and lawyers, and subjected to torture and ill-treatment.
Al-Omari and Hamada were conditionally released on 6 February, but Darwish, Gharir, and Zaitani.
The five men face three to fifteen years of imprisonment and hard labour.
Since the Centre began its work in 2004, Mazen Darwish and his colleagues have been arrested and detained on several occasions and have been subject to administrative restrictions and travel bans. The Centre has been shut down on three occasions by Syrian authorities on three occasions.