Ali al-Abdallah is a Syrian writer and human rights

Human rights

Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...

 activist.

He was arrested in Syria in March 2006. He was again arrested and jailed during 2007 after trying to revive the Damascus Declaration

Damascus Declaration

The Damascus Declaration was a statement of unity by Syrian opposition figures issued in October 2005. It criticized the Syrian government regime as `authoritarian, totalitarian and cliquish,` and called for `peaceful, gradual,` reform `founded on accord, and based on dialogue and recognition of...

, a rights movement named after a 2005 document that demanded that bans on freedom of speech

Freedom of speech

Freedom of speech is the freedom to speak freely without censorship. The term freedom of expression is sometimes used synonymously, but includes any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used...

 and assembly be lifted and Syria's emergency law abolished. He was released from Adra Prison

Adra Prison

Adra Prison is a prison in Syria, on the north-east outskirts of Damascus.Civil prisoners and leading political prisoners are held in the prison. In 2010, the prison held 7,000 prisoners, a dozen of them women...

on June 23, 2010, and re-imprisoned one day later for writing an article that was critical of Syria's ties with Iran. A Syrian military court charged him with weakening national morale. The United States asked Syria to free him.