: rights group February 15, 2011 - 12:35AM
.Syrian woman blogger Tal al-Mallouhi has been sentenced to five years in prison by a state security court, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a statement on Monday.

"The state security court in Damascus today condemned blogger Tal al-Mallouhi to five years in prison after finding her guilty of divulging information to a foreign country," it said in a statement received in Nicosia.

In October, Syria's Al-Watan newspaper reported that the authorities were accusing Mallouhi, a 19-year-old high school student, of spying for the US embassy in Egypt.

Advertisement: Story continues below The charge was denied by Washington, which on Saturday called for her "immediate release" and condemned what it called ."

State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said in a statement that Washington "rejects as baseless allegations of American connections that have resulted in a spurious accusation of espionage.

"We call on the Syrian government to immediately release all its prisoners of conscience; and allow its citizens freedom to exercise their universal rights of expression and association without fear of retribution from their own government," he added.

Three Syrian rights groups said in late November that Mallouhi "was interviewed on November 10 by the High Court for State Security and then returned to her women's prison in Duma, near Damascus."

The statement expressing "extreme concern" was signed by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the Syrian League for the Defence of Human Rights and the National Organisation for Human Rights in Syria.

Mallouhi, granddaughter of a former minister under the late Hafez al-Assad, father of current President Bashar al-Assad, had been "held incommunicado without charge for nine months," Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in September.

She was first detained in late December 2009, the US-based group said.

Mallouhi's home computer, CDs and books were seized by security services, HRW said, although her blog, which contains poetry and social commentary, focuses mostly on the plight of the Palestinians and does not address Syrian politics.

Social networking websites and blogs helped to launch and sustain the recent popular revolts that brought down Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.

Web users users in Syria reported that direct access to Facebook and YouTube, blocked since 2007, was reinstated on Wednesday.

Al-Watan, a newspaper close to the government, quoted analysts as saying that the removal of firewalls blocking Facebook and YouTube demonstrated "the government's confidence in its performance and that the state did not fear any threat coming from these two sites nor others."

.......Faezeh Hashemi, daughter of ex-president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, was briefly arrested while "leading anti-revolutionaries and rioters" in Tehran.

Witnesses said a heavy deployment of riot police and Basij militiamen in key squares of Tehran such as Haft-e Tir ensured that anti-government protesters were unable to stage significant protests on Sunday.........

...............She was "identified and arrested by police in Vali Asr street while intending to make harsh comments and chant provocative slogans and create a disturbance," IRNA said.

Rafsanjani himself has come under harsh criticism from conservatives who demand that he publicly condemn opposition leaders. The cleric and former two-time president had reportedly supported Mousavi in the 2009 election.

Witnesses and opposition website Kaleme.com said men on motorbikes were riding around parts of Tehran "in a show of strength ... to intimidate people and prevent them from holding large gatherings".

According to Rahesabz.net, mobile phone networks in central Tehran were cut and Internet speed was "noticeably slow"............

............Foreign media have been banned from covering any opposition gatherings............

.............Anti-government protests erupted in Iran after a June 2009 presidential poll in which Mousavi and Karroubi, both candidates, charged that the incumbent, hardliner Ahmadinejad, was re-elected through massive fraud.............

..........One protester told Al Jazeera: "What we are witnessing today is unimaginable. Warplanes and helicopters are indiscriminately bombing one area after another. There are many, many dead.

"Our people are dying. It is the policy of scorched earth. Anyone who moves, even if they are in their car they will hit you."

He said the bombing runs initially targeted a funeral procession, and the Navy was also reportedly shelling the city.

Tripoli was rocked by gunfire with government buildings ablaze, amid reports of a massacre that left 60 dead in the city's Green Square.

Security forces appeared to be preparing a major assault in the capital tonight, as state TV said troops had "stormed the hideouts of the saboteurs".

Snipers took up positions on rooftops and jets swooped low over rooftops, apparently trying to stop more opposition activists joining those who are already overwhelming the city.

The second city Benghazi was also said to be "totally out of control", with residents reporting numerous explosions and teenagers roaming the streets with assault rifles.............