Baladi - Media
The Syrian dissident Riyad al-Turk, 88, known as "Syria's Mandela," has arrived in France through Turkey, with the help of Syrian activists and militants.
An oppositions source in Paris said under under condition of anonymity, that al-Turk arrived in France before two or three days, and he's planning to stay there, where one of his daughters lives.
"It's a very good news," the same source said.
Turk was the longtime leader of the dissident Syrian Communist Party-Political Bureau, which was outlawed by Bashar Assad and later renamed the Syrian Democratic People’s Party.
He quickly supported the peaceful opposition which broke out in 2011 and later backed the Syrian National Council which brought together opponents of Assad as the country’s war intensified.
“Our revolution is peaceful, popular and rejects sectarianism, and the Syrian people are one,” he declared in October 2011.
“There will be no compromise nor negotiations about our goal of toppling this despotic regime.”
In total he spent 17 years imprisoned, often without trial, on claims of various offenses under Hafez Assad and later his son, Bashar.
Source: Orient net + Baladi News