Israeli Court Ruling against Syrian Captive Sedqi al-Maqet Null and Void: Foreign Ministry
DAMASCUS, (ST)-Syria has affirmed that the 11-year prison sentence issued by the Israeli occupation authorities against Sedqi al-Maqet, the “dean of Syrian and Arab captives,” is null and void.
In two letters sent to the UN Chief and President of the Security Council on Wednesday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates said that the unfair and illegal Israeli court’s ruling came after al-Maqet had managed to expose the involvement of the occupation authorities in providing different forms of support for the terrorist organizations in Syria, mainly Jabhat al-Nusra and its affiliated armed groups.
The ministry urged immediate release of al-Maqet.
On Tuesday, October 9th ,2018, the Higher Court of the Israeli occupation authorities issued a ridiculous ruling by approving an 11-year unfair prison sentence against dean of Syrian and Arab captives Sedqi al-Maqet , a citizen Majdal Shams town of the occupied Syrian Golan, said the ministry.
Al-Maqet spent 27 years in the Israeli jails without any legal or moral justification. He was released in 2012 and rearrested in February 2015 over his resistant stances against occupation, the ministry added.
The ministry went on to say that Syria strongly condemns the Israeli court unfair racial ruling against al-Maqet and considers it as null and illegal being issued by an occupation authority against a Syrian citizen living under the rule of occupation.
The Israeli prison sentence against al-Maqet is a new scandal added to the Israeli occupation’s record of crimes and violations of human rights, international law and Security Council Resolution No. 497 which doesn’t allow Israel to adopt punitive measures against the Syrians in the occupied Syrian Golan, the ministry said, noting that such Israeli crimes have been continuous since Israel’s occupation of the Syrian Golan on June 5, 1967.
The ministry called on the UN Chief, President of the Security Council, the Higher Commissioner of Human Rights and all the international human rights bodies, including the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to work actively as to immediately and unconditionally release al-Maqet, because the Israeli unjust decision flagrantly violates the rights of the Syrians living under the Israeli occupation and contradicts justice. The ministry also called for the release of all the Syrian detainees and captives in the occupation’s jails.
Syria renews its call for implementing the rules of the Geneva Convention and the relevant international humanitarian law in the Arab territories occupied by Israel, including the occupied Syrian Golan, the ministry concluded.
Hamda Mustafa