Syrian ex-vice president Abdel Halim Khaddam said Sunday a life jail term issued against him for "treason" is proof the Syrian regime is transforming the country into a prison for its people.
"This verdict does not worry me or affect my determination," the former official, who now lives in exile in Paris, said in a statement, cited by AFP. The sentence of life in prison with hard labour showed "the isolation of the Syrian regime, which is transforming the country into a huge prison and increasing its repression of the people," his statement said.
A Syrian lawyer Hossam Eddine Habash said on Saturday that a military tribunal held in Damascus had on August 17 sentenced Khaddam, 73, to hard labour for life on 13 charges, including high treason.
According to the charge sheet, Khaddam had been accused of "conspiracy to unlawfully seize political power" and of having "illegitimate links with the Zionist enemy, undermining the prestige of the state and of national sentiment and worst of all, plotting with a foreign country to launch an aggression against Syria."
© 2008 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
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