EU foreign policy chief
Catherine Ashton denounced the arrest of blogger Razan Ghazzawi, rights
campaigner Mazen Darwish and several other Syrian activists, calling Friday for
their immediate release.
A statement from her office
said she "deplores the arrest on Thursday by Syrian security forces"
of Darwish, Ghazzawi and at least 12 others including Darwish's wife.
Expressing concern about
their physical safety, she demanded information about their whereabouts and
called for their families to be allowed to visit them.
All of those arrested
together with all political prisoners should be released "in accordance
with Syria's commitments to the Arab League to end violence," her
statement added.
Colleagues said Ghazzawi
was arrested in an afternoon raid on the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of
Expression Thursday, which is located in central Damascus and is headed by
Darwish.
Later Thursday, the UN
General Assembly demanded an immediate halt to Syria's brutal crackdown, which
human rights groups say has claimed more than 6,000 lives over the past 11
months.
China, Russia and Iran
opposed the largely symbolic text put forward by Arab states with Western
support just days after Beijing and Moscow vetoed a similar resolution in the
UN Security Council.
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