Syria: Travel ban imposed on human rights lawyer Mr Radef Moustafa

Human rights defender Mr Radef Moustafa was prevented from travelling to Geneva to attend the Fourth International Conference against Capital Punishment taking place from 24-26 February 2010. The security authorities did not give any reason for preventing Radef Moustafa from travelling outside Syria.

Further Information

The travel ban against Radef Moustafa has been in force for two years. Front Line previously issued an appeal in relation to Radef Moustafa on 8 December 2009 when he was prevented from travelling to Cairo to attend a Front Line regional workshop on the implementation of the European Union Guidelines on Human Rights Defenders.

Radef Moustafa is a human rights lawyer, director of the Kurdish Committee for Human Rights (kurdchr) and coordinator of the Syria Coalition against Capital Punishment. He has provided pro bono legal assistance to several human rights defenders charged and brought to court in Syria. In particular, he was the lawyer assisting Mr Muhanad Alhasani, human rights lawyer and president of the Syrian Human Rights Organisation (SHRO), about whom Front Line reported on 31 July 2009.

Travel bans have routinely been used by the authorities in Syria as a means of exerting pressure upon human rights defenders and to prevent them from attending regional and international human rights meetings, as documented by Front Line in a report published in May 2009 - available at Report on Use of Travel Bans in Syria Front Line believes that the travel ban imposed upon Radef Moustafa is directly related to his work in defence of human rights, particularly in pursuing justice for victims of violations of human rights by the Syrian authorities. Front Line sees this as part of an ongoing pattern of harassment of human rights defenders in Syria.