This is from Denis McShanes' blog, the link for which is here
Former Europe Minister, Denis MacShane has called on the Syrian authorities to free Rafah Nached, a 66-year-old psychoanalyst who was arrested on 10 September 2011 at Damascus Airport when she was on a family visit to Paris.
MacShane raised his concern about this case as news came through that Russia and China had vetoed a UN resolution drafted by European democracies and the United States calling for more sanctions against the Syrian regime.
“Russia has treated with contempt David Cameron who returned from Moscow recently without any commitment by the authoritarian rulers of Russia to support human rights, rule of law or democracy,” said MacShane.
Rafah Nached is a well-known Syrian psychoanalyst, trained in Paris, who has been held in solitary confinement. She is allowed to two weekly visits only. Her health has been significantly deteriorating, to the extent that she is now unable to stand for more than 30 minutes. She has a serious heart disease which needs to be treated.
‘This disgraceful arrest of a doctor who has spent her life helping people with severe mental problems and is not involved in politics shows how sick the Bashar al-Asad regime has become. She should be released so that she can treat Bashar and try and cure him and his associates of the delusion that cruelty and repression are the way forward for Syria,’ said MacShane.
The British MP, a former Europe Minister, has written to the Syrian Ambassador in London and to Foreign Secretary William Hague asking for his support.
‘President Sarkozy and Prime Minister Cameron have been proud to organise photo-calls in Tripoli but they are doing nothing to stop the repression in Syria and Bahrain. Mme Nached is amongst the thousands of innocent people arrested in Syria. I hope her case get publicity in Britain as well as France as a symbol of the cruelty of the Syrian regime,’ said MacShane.
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