Syria releases prominent rights activist from prison

Syrian authorities today released a prominent human rights activist who spent more than three years in prison for reporting on the government's crackdown on protesters in the early days of the uprising against President Bashar Assad, activists said.
Mazen Darwish was the director of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression when he was arrested in February 2012 in a Damascus security raid, along with two of his colleagues.
The organisation confirmed his release today but said he is still standing trial and is scheduled to attend a court hearing on August 30.
"After an arbitrary arrest that lasted three years, five months, and 23 days, Mazen Darwish has released from prison today," the group said in a statement.

Darwish was an outspoken critic of the government's crackdown on protests that erupted against Assad's rule in March 2011.
He was one of the rare journalists who dared publish details of arbitrary arrests and violations by policy and security forces.

He has been standing trial on charges of "publicising terrorist acts."
What began as an Arab Spring-style uprising against Assad's rule became a full-blown civil war in Syria. The conflict, now in its fifth year, has killed at least 250,000 people and wounded more than a million, according to the UN.
International human rights and press freedoms organisations, including the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists and Amnesty International have long called on the Syrian government to release Darwish. The UN also called for his release.