Syrian authorities have released on bail a U.S.-born blogger who was arrested two weeks ago and charged with trying to incite sectarian strife, a media rights group said.
The Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression said Razan Ghazzawi was released Sunday night on bail of $270, but that she still faced trial.
The group called for all charges to be dropped against Ghazzawi, who was arrested on Dec. 4 as she tried to cross from Syria into Jordan to attend a conference on freedom of the press in the Middle East.
Ghazzawi, 30, was among scores of bloggers and journalists arrested since an uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad erupted nine months ago.
On her website, Ghazzawi says she studied in the English literature department in Damascus University.
"I am vegetarian, genderqueer and kind of pissed of at everything. But a person who cries genuinely while watching Daddy Long Legs cartoon," she writes.
Call to free other detainees
A message on her Twitter account, @RedRazan, said, "Is home,but Nawal,Rime,Tal,Manal & Hadiyyah remain in jail.Free #Syria detainees & prisoners of conscience!Thank u all 4 ur amazing support."
Previous messages said her blog, email account and Twitter feed were being run by friends and supporters.
A message on the account said that she had told them that "If anything happens to me know that the regime does not fear the prisoners but those who doesn't [don't] forget them."
The United Nations says more than 5,000 people have been killed in Assad's crackdown on the protests. Authorities say more than 1,100 soldiers and security force members have been killed in violence they blame on "armed terrorist groups."
The Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression said in a posting on its website that Ghazzawi was questioned by a magistrate on Dec. 12.
It said she was charged along with several other journalists and bloggers under a number of articles of Syrian law, including one that outlaws "joining an organization that aims to change the economic and social entity of the state, or the basic conditions of the society" and one that criminalizes "the person who, in times of war or the threat thereof, attempts to weaken the national sentiment or ignite racist or sectarian strife."
Charges denied
The group was also charged under laws against spreading false or exaggerated news, "leading to weakening the morale of the nation," being "in a suspicious meeting that does not conform to the norms or nature of private meetings," starting a riot or singing songs supporting riots, and gathering to cause riots.
The center said Ghazzawi had denied all the charges against her, saying that "her general activity is limited to working with the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression, in addition to freely expressing her opinion as a Syrian citizen through writing in her personal blog, which is a right guaranteed by the Syrian constitution."
It said lawyer Khalil Ma’touq had pointed out that "Blogger Razan Ghazzawi did not commit any crime that is punishable by Syrian law, and all her activities are constitutional rights granted to her according to the Syrian constitution and the treaties and commitments that the Syrian government has signed."
It added that the charges against her were "fabricated and have no basis in reality."
"The apparatuses of the Syrian Republic are supposed to be the protectors and guarantors, and not the suppressors, of the citizens' rights to freedom of expression," the center said in the website posting.
