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Syrian Kurdish poet among three arrested: rights group

DAMASCUS, Sept 6, 2008 (AFP) - The Syrian authorities have arrested three people, including the brother of the head of a banned Kurdish political group who has been in detention since July, a human rights group said on Saturday.

The National Organisation of Human Rights in Syria accused the authorities of "arbitrary arrests" and urged them to free Kurds Hozan Sheikh Mussa Mohammed and Mohammed Saeed Abidi as well as Munir al-Barhamgi.

Mohammed is a poet and a brother of Mohammed Mussa, the head of the banned Kurdish Left Party, who has been detained by the Syrian authorities since his arrest in Damascus in July, the rights group said in a statement.

Mohammed was arrested earlier this week in the northeastern Syrian town of Qamishli, it said.

The rights group identified Abidi as the manager of a Kurdish folk group and said that the security services also seized his computer as well as several compact discs on poetry and Kurdish art. He was arrested at the end of August.

Barhamgi was arrested on August 29 near the Syrian capital "without providing any reasons," the rights group said.

The three men "should be set free or referred to the judicial authorities," it said.