"The UK will always uphold the right to freedom of speech"
Commenting on the sentencing of Tal al-Mallouhi in Syria today, Minister for the Middle East and North Africa, Alistair Burt calls for the blogger's release.
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“I am deeply disappointed to hear that the Syrian blogger, Tal al-Mallouhi, a young woman of 19 years of age, has been sentenced by the Syrian Supreme State Security Court to 5 years imprisonment. The UK will always uphold the right to freedom of speech and I am seriously concerned that freedom of expression, including in the digital media, is not being respected. I call on the Syrian Government to abide by the international agreements to which it is a party, particularly the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
I also call for Tal al-Mallouhi’s immediate release and the release of all those who have been imprisoned solely for seeking to exercise their right to peaceful freedom of expression and association”.