Johannesburg: One of the most prominent opponents of the Syrian regime fears for his life and is in hiding, but that has not stopped him from speaking out, his son said during a visit to South Africa.
Syrian President Bashar Al Assad has used brutal force against pro-democracy protests, but the demonstrations have only grown. Human Rights Watch says more than 1,300 Syrians have been killed since the protests began.
Iyas Al Maleh said his father, 80-year-old Haitham Al Maleh, remains in Syria but has fled his home and is reluctant to use his mobile phone for fear that Syrian security agents will trace him. Al Maleh said his father, who has been a critic of the Syrian regime for decades, has used other means to speak out, including e-mails and interviews over voice-over-internet devices. Al Maleh spoke Thursday during an interview.
"The fear is really not an arrest," Al Maleh said of his father, who has spent years in Syrian prisons for his political activism. "They might actually try to get rid of him."
Al Maleh said neighbours had told the family that security agents seen near his father's home have been saying "they have orders to shoot and not to arrest any more," and that one young neighbour had been offered money to assault his father.
Al Maleh said that when the neighbour reported the offer to him, his father joked that he should have demanded more, and split the money with him.
Threat of violence
Amnesty International has included Al Maleh among at least a dozen prominent rights and political activists in Syria it believes have been forced into hiding after receiving threats of violence and arrests.
Al Maleh was arrested in 2009 for "spreading false information" after giving a television interview that criticised Al Assad's government. He was held pending trial on that charge until his release in March following an amnesty issued by Al Assad. Al Maleh also was imprisoned from 1980 to 1986 after demanding constitutional reforms.
