Unrest in the Arabworld---Syria.

'Hundreds jailed for degrading Syria'

Rights group says many given three-year prison sentences as authorities seek to quell uprising. Last Modified: 04 May 2011 11:22 Email Print Share Send Feedback

Authorities in Syria are accused of carrying out a brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protesters [AFP] Human rights groups say hundreds of ordinary Syrians have been jailed for "degrading the prestige of the state" amid an intensifying crackdown on anti-government protests. Hundreds of detainees received a three-year prison sentence on Tuesday while mass arrests continue, to pre-empt further unrest on the Muslim day of prayer on Friday, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Demonstrations in the region typically see biggest turn out on Fridays. "Mass arrests are continuing across Syria in another violation of human rights and international conventions," Rami Abdelrahman of the rights body told Reuters news agency on Wednesday. Click here for more of our Syria coverage President Bashar al-Assad's campaign to preserve his 11-year rule took a drastic turn last week after his brother Maher led a tank-backed army unit in shelling protesters into submission at Deraa, the southern city that has been the epicentre of the six-week-old uprising. Wissam Tarif, executive director of the Insan human rights group, said detainees include activists, community leaders, or people seen documenting the violence on mobile phone or uploading the content to the internet. On Tuesday the International Committee of the Red Cross urged Syria to lift restrictions on access to casualties in Deraa. In the coastal city of Banias, about 1,000 protesters marched in the city's Sunni district carrying loaves of bread, in solidarity with the people of Deraa. (source:http://english.aljazeera.net) =====================================================