US tells Syria to release jailed writer, others

Washington, May 15: The United States has strongly urged Syria's President Bashar al-Assad to free jailed writer Michel Kilo and other political activists imprisoned for expressing their personal views.

A Syrian court on Sunday sentenced Kilo to three years in jail on charges of ''weakening national feelings'' after he criticized government policy toward neighbor Lebanon.

Syria's government has become more sensitive to criticism of its Lebanon policy after it withdrew its troops from there following the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafik al-Hariri.

Kilo received the same sentence as Mahmoud Issa, a political activist who also signed last year's Damascus-Beirut Declaration criticizing Syrian policy toward Lebanon.

State Department spokesman Tom Casey criticized Syria for what he said were ''harsh'' judgments against Kilo and others.

''These latest sentences are evidence of the Syrian regime's continued contempt for human rights,'' Casey said in a statement yesterday. ''We call on President al-Assad to unconditionally release all prisoners of conscience.'' The United States has been harshly critical for what it sees as Syria's destabilizing role in both Lebanon and Iraq but broke two years of isolation policy against Damascus when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met Syria's foreign minister this month on the sidelines of a conference in Egypt.

Reuters>