Assad court freed Syria's youngest activist Tal al-Mallouhi

Assad's court freed 'The youngest known convicted prisoner' Tal al-Mallouhi 

Syrian First Criminal Court in Homs issued on Wednesday judicial decision to release immediately the youngest known convicted prisoner Tal al-Mallouhi, 22-year-old, after 45 months of imprisonment, according to the Lawyer Omar Qandaqji.

 Qandaqji said through his FaceBook page the court verdict has not been implemented yet, al-Mallouhi still in Adra prison, where the lawyer expressed his concerns that the youngest blogger might be interrogated  by State intelligence according to the Assad regime norms where most of the political prisoners should have the farewell visit.

Syrian authorities released yesterday 16 women detainees as part of a weekend hostage exchange but more than 100 others are still being held, a prominent human rights activist said Wednesday, AFP reported.

Tal Al-Mallouhi was detained on December 27, 2009, after being summoned by State Security Branch 279 in Damascus for questioning about her blog entries. Two days after her detention, Syrian state security officials raided her family home and confiscated her computer, notebooks, and other personal documents and belongings. Al-Mallouhi was held incommunicado at an undisclosed location without charge or access to her family for nine months, until late August 2010, when her detention was publicized. Al-Mallouhi’s family originally sought her release through diplomatic relations and negotiations and therefore did not want any publicity on the case. However, on September 2, 2010, her mother published an open letter to the Syrian president seeking information on her daughter’s welfare and calling for her immediate release. In the letter, her mother described the intense suffering felt by the entire family at her daughter’s detention without any confirmed cause. Her family was finally allowed to visit her for the first time at Doma Prison in Damascus on September 30, 2010, but has not been permitted to visit her since.

Nine Lebanese Shiite hostages held for 17 months by a rebel group in northern Syria were exchanged on Saturday for two Turkish pilots abducted in Lebanon in August.

The release of scores of female detainees held in regime jails formed part of the deal brokered by Turkey, Qatar and Lebanon.

"Two of the women whose names were on the list were freed (Wednesday), a day after 14 others were released," activist Sema Nassar told AFP.

"For their own safety, they will have to leave the country."

The women were on a list of 128 names of female detainees handed to the Syrian authorities as part of the exchange deal, she added.

Among them was a cancer patient who had been imprisoned twice before and whose husband has been killed in Syria's 31-month-old conflict, said Nassar.

Another of those freed had been imprisoned "because her uncle is a dissident and her father is a dissident lawyer," said Nassar.

The rest were humanitarian activists, two of whom never faced trial.

There has been no official comment in Damascus on the detainees.

Tens of thousands of people are being held by the Syrian regime, many of them without trial, activists say. Rights groups say torture and ill-treatment are systematic in Syria's jails.