(Zaman Al Wasl)- Avaaz, global civic movement, launched in support of a Syrian refugee who has been sentenced to hundreds of years in prison and a fine of more than 3 million Euros on charges of "trafficking".
The petition by is the U.S.-based activism tribune called on to "Save Noor al-Samah," who studied administrative science in Syria before fleeing the war-torn country.
According to the petition, Noor, who was fluent in English, worked as an interpreter on a sailboat on his journey to Europe and asked for rescue when the boat stopped at sea and thus saved everyone on board. It reported that the teams that responded to the distress call took him and the rest of the passengers to the coast of Pieria, where he was then handed over to the Greek guard after being beaten, insulted and blindfolded.
Noor was sentenced to 315 years in prison for human trafficking in 2015, with a fine of 3 million and 150,000 euros and a lifelong deportation, according to the lawyer he had been assigned by the court, while releasing the Turkish smuggler after paying his bail.
Noor was able to appoint a lawyer at the Appeal Court after some of his friends campaigned for him and collected the lawyer's fees, but the court found him guilty. The case was brought back to the Supreme Court of Greece and Noor is awaiting the court's decision, a procedure that usually takes about 6 months to be released.
The petition stated that Noor went through three trials, the first and the second in the Pieria regional unit of Athens, Greece, where he was held at Korydallos prison, and the third in Areos Pagos, Athens. He is now in Nigrita prison in Serres on the Bulgarian border.
The petition claimed that he tried to reach out to public opinion through many human rights organizations, institutions and regional local networks, but he did not receive any reactions to his case.
Noor said, as quoted by the petition, that he had met several prisoners who had been accused of the same charges, some spending more than eight years behind bars without concrete evidence.
The petition ended with the words from Noor Al-Samah: "Humanitarianism is a lie that does not go beyond the limits of reason and has been invented by some for marketing." It stressed the need to sign it in order to "save Noor al-Samah, who lost his years behind bars unjustly and unfairly."
Zaman Al Wasl
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