| October 2008 - News |
| October 2008 |
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Syria seeks extradition of Khaddam A Syrian military court sentenced former Vice-President Abdul Halim Khaddam to life imprisonment and hard labour after finding him guilty of 13 charges, including high treason, in Damascus on August 17. Among other charges, Khaddam, 73, who lives in exile in France after serving as Syrian vice-president from 1984 to 2005, was found guilty of “conspiracy to unlawfully seize political power”, of having “illegitimate links with the Zionist enemy” and of “plotting with a foreign country to launch an aggression against Syria”. Khaddam was also found guilty of lying to the United Nations about the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in February 2005. As part of a ‘working visit’ to France as Syrian vice-president in 2005, Khaddam publicly accused Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of threatening to kill Hariri. Syrian authorities deny all such accusations. Houssam Eddine al-Habash, the lawyer who brought the prosecution case against Khaddam, said the former vice-president would be stripped of his civil rights. He also voiced support for Khaddam’s extradition from France to Damascus. “These are clearly criminal charges, not just some political allegation, so there is no reason for Interpol not to make an arrest and hand him to the Syrian authorities,” Habash said. Syrian authorities will send the verdict to the International Police Organisation (Interpol) in France. The decision to extradite Khaddam rests in the hands of Interpol. Khaddam has denied the charges against him. Khaddam was an influential member of the ruling Ba’ath Party’s regional command for almost 30 years. In 2006, Khaddam and Ali Sadreddine Al-Bayanouni, general supervisor of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamic organisation banned in Syria, founded the National Salvation Front, an opposition coalition group. |