Khaddam, who lives in exile in Paris, commenting on the life sentence with hard labor that was issued against him in absentia by the Military Criminal Court in Damascus, said that this decision “expresses the state of suffocation, anxiety and distress that the regime is experiencing in Syria.”
Former Syrian Vice President Abdel Halim Khaddam considered on Saturday that the life sentence with hard labor that was issued against him in absentia in Damascus expresses the “state of suffocation” that the Syrian regime is experiencing and its “internal isolation.”
Khaddam said in a statement, commenting on the life sentence with hard labor that was issued against him in absentia by the Military Criminal Court in Damascus, that this ruling “expresses the state of suffocation, anxiety and distress that the regime is experiencing in Syria due to its internal isolation and the citizens’ hatred for the regime that has turned Syria into a large prison and increased the suffering of its people due to... "tyranny and corruption"
Khaddam stressed in the statement issued by his press office, a copy of which was received by Agence France-Presse, that “this measure and others will not intimidate him or make him lose his resolve.”
In his statement, Khaddam criticized what was stated in the judicial ruling about his “contacts with a foreign country and incitement to carry out aggression against Syria, without specifying this country or the alleged facts,” accusing the Syrian regime of “abandoning the independence, sovereignty, and dignity of Syria, using repression to protect and continue it.”
Khaddam also responded to his accusation of contacting Israel by saying, “The Syrians and Arab public opinion know the role that Israel plays to protect the corrupt and tyrannical ruling regime and the pressures it exerts to break its isolation and open the door to dialogue with it.”
Khaddam was convicted, according to the text of the ruling, a copy of which was received by Agence France-Presse, on charges of “conspiracy to usurp political and civil authority, his illegal connections with the Zionist enemy, and undermining the prestige of the state and national sentiment, the most severe of which is plotting against a foreign country to encourage aggression against Syria, for which he was punished with life imprisonment.”
Khaddam defected in 2005 after criticizing Syrian foreign policy, especially in Lebanon, and in his exile in 2006 he founded the National Salvation Front, which includes Syrian opponents, most notably the Muslim Brotherhood.
Khaddam called for working on “peaceful change in Syria by overthrowing the dictatorial regime” and building “a modern democratic state in Syria based on citizenship.”
Khaddam confirmed after his asylum in Paris that he was “fully convinced” that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad “gave the order” to assassinate former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in February 2005.
