Syria rights veteran faces trial

A former judge, Haitham Maleh, gave an interview to opposition TV

A Syrian human rights group says veteran dissident Haitham Maleh has been put under formal arrest after he was questioned by military prosecutors.

The 78-year-old former judge was detained last week in a move which sparked international criticism.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says he is likely to face charges of spreading false information.

In interviews and a recent open letter to the president he criticised repression and corruption in Syria.

Mr Maleh has advocated democracy in Syria for decades and spent seven years in prison as a dissident in the 1980s.

He disappeared, presumed arrested, last Wednesday, but there was no announcement by the authorities.

It was confirmed that he had been referred by a security branch to a military court on Tuesday and he was interrogated on Wednesday.

Britain has urged Syria to free Mr Maleh and allow Syrian citizens "to practise the right of freedom of expression and association without fear of sanction".

Advocacy group Human Rights Watch said Syria could not expect to be treated as a member of the international community if it arbitrarily imprisoned its own citizens.

Commanding figure

Before his arrest, Mr Maleh told an opposition-supporting TV station outside the country, that Syria is run "by decree".

"Citizens have no protection from the arbitrary authority and the aggression of the security apparatus," he said.

"The law is not applied except on the weak," he added.

The BBC's Arab regional editor, Sebastian Usher, says that judging by similar cases, Mr Maleh would face between one and three years in prison if he is charged.

He remains a commanding and respected figure in Syria, our correspondent says, but inevitably his age makes him somewhat remote, even isolated, from younger generations of political opposition.

Human rights activists say such arrests show the growing rapprochement between Syria and the West has so far had little effect on state repression of dissent.