Former Syrian VP sentenced to hard labour: lawyer

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2008

DAMASCUS (AFP) — A military court in Damascus has sentenced former Syrian vice president turned opposition leader Abdel Halim Khaddam to hard labour for life, his lawyer told AFP on Saturday.

"Judge Mohammed Kaddour Assad of the Damascus first military criminal court has handed Abdel Halim Khaddam 13 sentences, including hard labour for life," lawyer Hossam Eddine al-Habash said.

The court has ordered that Khaddam be stripped of his civil rights and prevented from residing in Damascus or Tartus, his native town, Habash said.

Khaddam, who resigned as Syria's vice president in 2005 to join the opposition and now lives in Paris, is accused of "slandering the Syrian leadership and lying before an international tribunal regarding the killing of former Lebanese...