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Syria jails 12 young Kurds

DAMASCUS, Feb 4, 2007 (AFP) - Twelve young Kurds, including three minors, were sentenced on Sunday to jail terms of between two-and-half and seven-and-a-half years for "membership of a secret organisation", a human rights organisation said.

The National Organisation of Human Rights in Syria said they were accused before the higher state security court of belonging to a group which aimed "to annex a part of Syrian territory to a foreign state and commit terrorist acts".

The 12 Kurds were arrested at the end of 2005 after having hurled Molotov cocktails in the northern city of Aleppo, according to the organisation's head, Ammar Qorabi.

The organisation, which said the three minors were each given prison terms of two and a half years, called in a statement for Syrian authorities to scrap emergency courts and release all political prisoners.