Prominent voice of dissent spending dying days in prison

Reports from Damascus say Syria's leading dissident is on his deathbed. Riad Saif, 62 and suffering from prostate cancer, has spent the last year in Adra prison as punishment for attending a meeting of pro-democracy groups in Damascus. Syrian President Bashar Al Assad has prohibited him from seeking treatment abroad, a restriction Saif once called "a slow death sentence".

Saif is the most respected member of Syria's dwindling secular, democratic opposition to the iron-fisted rule of Assad and his Alawite clan. As the administration of President Barack Obama prepares to resume diplomatic engagement with Damascus, Saif's plight is a poignant reminder of the abysmal state of human rights in Syria.

A former member of parliament, Saif devoted much of the last two decades to criticising the Assad regime. A garment trader by profession - at one time he held the license to manufacture adidas in Syria - his fortunes changed after he was elected to parliament in 1994 and, in contrast to virtually all of his colleagues, embarked on a public campaign against corruption and for political and economic reforms. His efforts to change Syria cost him personally and professionally. In 1996, two years after his election, Saif's 21-year-old son, Iyad, died under what Saif later described as "mysterious circumstances".

Then, after Saif published a high-profile study on economic stagnation in Syria, the regime charged him with tax evasion and levied fines in excess of $2 million (Dh7.35 million), leaving him bankrupt. Refusing to bow to pressure, Saif ran for parliament again in 1998. Remarkably, he won.

During his second term, Saif wrote and distributed a scathing report on the common practice in Syria of granting mobile-phone monopolies to regime cronies. Then in 2000, Saif gave a speech demanding an end to Assad's "political monopoly". In response, the government arranged to strip him of his parliamentary immunity. He was tried and sentenced to five years in prison.

Even behind bars, Saif was undeterred. In 2005, he coauthored the Damascus Declaration, which called for political pluralism, an end to the hated Emergency Law and a new Syrian constitution limiting the powers of the president. Saif eventually was released but had been out of prison for less than two years when he was sent back in February 2008.

Saif's case offers the Obama administration an opportunity to connect directly with the cause of human rights, which resonates deeply in Syria and throughout the Middle East.

Today, some suggest that sidelining human rights may be the sort of "confidence-building measure" toward Damascus that helps create an environment conducive to Israel-Syria peace talks. That would be a mistake.

Pressing for peace over human rights is a false choice. To the contrary, Washington might be able to demand respect for human rights in exchange for playing a role in negotiations with Israel over the return of the Golan Heights and a permanent peace deal with Israel.

If Washington is really committed to change, this formulation should apply not only to Middle Eastern leaders, but to people such as Saif, who share our values and reside in authoritarian states like Syria.

David Schenker is director of the programme on Arab politics at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.