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Efforts have been made over the last year to establish the veracity of these cases, and Al now has the names of 110 political prisoners (excluding those arrested in 1975), of whom 92 still remain without charge or trial and four have been kidnapped from Lebanon. Secretary General Martin Ennals wrote to President Assad on 25 June 1975 calling for the release or fair trial of these prisoners.
Al is continuing to work for the 23 previously adopted prisoners. AI has received information that the 12 former ministers of the Atassi government are still being held, without charges, in a separate part of Al Mezze prison, where their treatment is reported to be satisfactory. Two of the three adopted Jewish prisoners, Nissim Katri and Joseph Swed, were released in July 1974, without any charges having been brought against them. AI has received information that Swed's mental condition is disturbed and that he is limping as a result of ill- treatment.
There is no recent news of the third adopted Jewish prisoner, Albert Elia, previously head of the Jewish community in Lebanon, who was kidnapped from Beirut in September 1971. The Syrian government continues to deny his
imprisonment, but AI has recently heard that, prior to August 1973, he was held at Al Rowda investigation center in Damascus, where he was robbed of his money and tortured by fallaka (beating on the soles of the feet).
No news has been received of the eight Kurdish prisoners arrested in 1973 for addressing a memorandum to President Assad in protest against the deportation of 120,000 Syrian Kurds as part of the Arab Belt plan, but they have probably not yet been brought to trial.
AI belives that the conditions of the Syrian Jews have eased slightly. Some of the restrictions, such as the curfew and the 221⁄2 kilometer travel limit unless a permit is obtained, appear to be applied with less stringency. Al knows of Jews who have been permitted to leave the country, one on a permanent basis, and has heard that four other Jews were allowed to leave during the past four months. Two Syrian Jews, Azur Zalta and Joseph Shalouh, charged in March 1974 with the murder of four Jewish girls killed while attempting to escape to Lebanon, were released on bail on 29 September 1974, and it is thought that the trial will be postponed indefinitely.
A three-man team visited Syria in October as part of its mission to investigate allegations of ill-treatment and torture in both Syria and Israel (see chapter on Campaign for the Abolition of Torture). Although they were not permitted to investigate the question of ill-treatment of civilians, it is hoped that AI may have established a basis for future cooperation on this issue.
AI has acquired a substantial amount of information on prison conditions, treatment of prisoners and the legal system over the past year.
People's Democratic Republic of Yemen
Work has continued for 10 Amnesty International adopted prisoners in the country, and the cases of three others were taken up during the year, including the case of Tawfiq 'Az'azi, a barrister from Aden who disappeared from his flat in the summer of 1972 and has not been heard of since.
There are continuing reports of people disappearing or being executed, but the