Syrian ex-vice president condemns life jail term

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2008

PARIS (AFP) — Syrian ex-vice president Abdel Halim Khaddam said Sunday a life jail term issued against him for "treason" is proof the Damascus government is transforming the country into a prison for its people.

"This verdict does not worry me or affect my determination," the former senior official turned opposition figure, who now lives in exile in Paris, said in a statement sent to AFP by his office.

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," the statement said.

A Syrian lawyer close to the prosecution Hossam Eddine Habash said on Saturday that a military tribunal held in Damascus had on August 17 sentenced...