Longstanding Syrian human rights defender and lawyer Muhannad Al-Hassani is to be the Martin Ennals Award (MEA) laureate for 2010 - the award, considered the Nobel prize of human rights, will be presented on 15 October this year. The announcement came on Friday, 7 May 2010, at Geneva's Swiss Press Club.

Al-Hassani is currently detained inside Adra prison (Syria) and will most likely be unable to travel to Geneva for the November 2010 award ceremony, as he is subject to a travel ban. He is accused of "weakening national sentiment" and "spreading false news" and has been under surveillance by Syrian security forces for the last six years.

 

Al-Hassani was detained on 28 July 2009 after allegedly having reported on public sessions held at Damascus' state security court, an illegal act under Syrian law. On 10 November 2009, while in jail, Al-Hassani was disbarred in absentia by the Damascus section of the Syrian Bar Association, effectively prohibiting him from ever again practising law.

He is currently sharing a prison cell along with 70 other prisoners and is denied proper medical care.
 
Following the MEA's press conference formalities, Brody added that, with this announcement, a strong message is being sent not only to the Syrian government but also to Western governments who choose to focus on Syria's relations with Israel and Iran rather than address the growing issue of human rights violations across Syria.

Thoolen vouched that the Syrian ambassador to Switzerland will be invited to the award ceremony in October and noted that, "in the past, on three or four occasions, ambassadors from previous laureate's countries have attended the ceremonies."

Syria has a record of categorical repression of freedom of expression and has instigated a campaign against not only human rights defenders but also journalists and bloggers in an effort to gag its citizens and strengthen its control on civil society. Recent Syrian human rights violations have, for the most part, been concerned with the issues of enforced disappearances and arbitrary detention resulting from the exercise of the right to freedom of expression.

Following the Martin Ennals Award 2010 announcement, Al-Hassani's case sheds further light not only on the case of his lawyer, Haitham Al-Maleh, who was arrested after giving a telephone interview on the London-based Barada TV, but also the cases of Sheikh Abdul Rahman Koki and Ma'an Aqil, both now released but previously detained on similar grounds.