Warning to Syrians over harassment of protesters

the Foreign Office called in Syria’s ambassador to London yesterday to protest about alleged intimidation of Syrian dissidents in Britain, Foreign Secretary William Hague said.

Ambassador Sami Khiyami was told that “any harassment or intimidation of Syrians in our country is unacceptable and will not be tolerated”, Mr Hague revealed in the Commons.

Syrian diplomats in foreign capitals are mounting campaigns of harassment and threats against expatriate dissidents protesting outside Syrian embassies, rights group Amnesty International said this month.

Opponents of president Bashar al-Assad have been holding protests in Paris and London to demand an end to his rule.

Amnesty said it had documented cases of more than 30 activists in eight countries – Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Britain and the United States – who had faced some form of direct intimidation. Foreign Office minister Alistair Burt said Britain would take “appropriate action” if there was evidence of harassment by Syrian diplomats.

“They continue to investigate allegations and we are working with them closely,” he said in a statement.

A Syrian demonstrator in London has said he had been called by the Syrian embassy in June and warned because he was protesting.

“They said: ‘We can get you and your family. We know you are in England but we can get you here. Do not think you are out of our reach.’, they told me,” Ghaias AlJundi, 43, said.

Mr Khiyami denied that the London embassy was involved in any harassment in his meeting with Geoffrey Adams, the political director at the Foreign Office, according to a spokesman for the Syrian embassy.