DAMASCUS - A Syrian human rights lawyer appealed to the international community Monday to press for the release of a colleague feared held without charge for two weeks.
Lawyer Anwar Bunni expressed "deep concern about the disappearance of engineer and human rights activist Nizar Ristnawi", who has not been seen since his reported detention in the central town of Hama on April 19.
"We warn against this new recourse to the enforced disappearance of political activists ... and appeal to the international community and human rights watchdogs to firmly condemn such practices and demand Ristnawi's immediate release," he said.
The Syrian Organization for the Defence of Human Rights had reported Ristnawi's arrest on April 20 but gave no further details.
05/02/2005 15:08 GMT