The winds of change continue to blow strongly through the Arab world this week - from Libya to Bahrain to Iran, thousands of demonstrators took to the streets, demanding reforms – and they were often met with lethal force. The silence in some of the regions -other oppressive regimes doesn't necessarily mean compliance. Yaara Bou Melhem has been quietly filming inside Syria where she found a largely unreported struggle between dissidents and President Bashar al-Assad's hardline government. REPORTER: Yaara Bou Melhem We're driving past the Adra Prison, just outside Damascus, where most of the political prisoners and prisoners of conscience are held in Syria. Human Rights activists here put their numbers down to more than 2,000 detainees. Outside the prison, large portraits of President Bashar al-Assad look on. It is too dangerous to film openly here. These few images were taken in secret. Caught up in this prison system are dissidents as young as 20, like this woman, Tal al-Mallouhi. JAMAL (Translation): She wasn’t in a political party or in an opposition party or in a human rights organisation. This online activist, who I will call Jamal, has agreed to speak to me on the condition of anonymity. Jamal didn't know Tal personally but has taken up her cause. JAMAL (Translation): Tal wrote this. Tal was a blogger who ran three websites. She often wrote about the Palestinian cause, freedom and social justice. These are postings unremarkable in most countries. JAMAL (Translation): She says that prisoners are free but you are not. ‘Captivity doesn’t harm an eagle, nor does prison – an eagle is free but you are not.’ We go down a bit to find this photo and underneath it ‘People, don’t speak because it is forbidden.’ But in late 2009, Tal's writing suddenly stopped. She was called into the office of the Syrian security services and never left. JAMAL (Translation): As far as we knew, she’d vanished. No one knew anything about Tal - not even her parents - they did not know where she was. Was she still at National Security? Did she get transferred somewhere else? Was she sent to a prison? For a long time, it was unclear what crime Tal was accused of, only rumours reached the streets. But after 11 months, she was finally charged with espionage. JAMAL (Translation): They accused her of being recruited as a spy when in Egypt – the US Embassy in Egyptrecruited her. Dateline has exclusively obtained details of Tal's charges, which includes an allegation that she sent a letter of congratulations to US President Barack Obama via the White House website, that she was recruited by a woman named Jessica from the American Embassy in Egypt and asked to spy on Syrian officers and that she was paid by the US Embassy to write articles critical of Islamic movements. NADIM HOURY, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: Our most basic demand is that if you have evidence against her, refer it to a fair trial, not before the security court because we know what the conviction rate is at the state security court - 99%. Nadim Houry is a senior research for Human Rights Watch. He is banned from Syria but has been monitoring Tal's case from his office in Beirut. NADIM HOURY: From what we can access, if you look at her blog, if you talk to people who knew her, either in Syria or in Egypt - this is a girl who was like any teenager in high school - an idealist, wrote poems about the Palestinian cause and if the security services are saying she might be a spy, I'm not sure what information, what sensitive information, a 19-year-old who spent most of her last two years in Egypt could have access to. When Dateline approached the US Embassy in Cairo for a response to the allegation that they had recruited Tal al-Mallouhi they replieded, "We have nothing on this." Nadim Houry said older dissidents have already learned not to rely on the West. NADIM HOURY: It was a hard lesson to learn that when they got detained and arrested, all they got was maybe, you know, some junior level diplomat raising politely with the Syrian authorities, you know, their arrest. But no real pressure, no real signalling that the international community really cares about what happened inside ofSyria. What we see time and time again is international media caring about serious foreign policy. Dr Waleed al-Bunni is one of those who felt left in the lurch. DR WALEED AL-BUNNI (Translation): I and others thought that, because of the huge campaign to spread democracy and support human rights, perhaps I thought there were many people supporting me from noble motives. At great risk to himself, Dr Waleed agreed to speak with me about his time as a leader of the Damascus Spring, a pro-democracy movement which began in the year 2000. DR WALEED AL-BUNNI (Translation): A new phenomenon began, people forums. It started off with a couple of forums, then within a year each Syrian city had two or three forums where people gathered and spoke freely. After the crackdown, Dr Waleed spent five years in solitary confinement. This radio was his only companion. DR WALEED AL-BUNNI (Translation): It was everything – I learned English from it, I knew what was happening abroad. Dr Waleed was only recently released from a second jail stint. This time the democracy activist shared a cell with 100 convicted thieves, a situation which even his fellow inmates found absurd, as he recorded in his diary. DR WALEED AL-BUNNI: And then he shouted to the other, "Medicine doctor here in our room. He's a political prisoner." PROFESSOR AREF DALILAH (Translation): This is part of my library - most of these books are on economics and some are literature. Economics Professor Aref Dalilah is another one of Syria's leading dissidents. He spent seven years in solitary confinement, and it has taken its toll on him. PROFESSOR AREF DALILAH (Translation): Prison, regardless of where, is bad. It restricts your freedom, your activities and it is humiliating, but in Syria, it is far worse than you can imagine. The period of my life spent in prison was extremely hard at all levels, health-wise and psychologically. Mr Dalilah has now been black listed from his profession. He also left jail with a number of medical problems, and needs to travel abroad to receive treatment. But like many other dissident, he is banned from leaving the country to stop him speaking out. PROFESSOR AREF DALILAH (Translation): For an educated person, it makes him a prisoner regardless of the fact that he is out of solitary confinement and re-entered society. He remains a prisoner as he is unable to express his ideas. There are many more activists at work in Syria, but they remain in the shadows. Getting people to speak on camera was no easy task. Many simply declined. Those who did speak, later requested for their interviews to be deleted, fearing the repercussions it would have on their families and themselves. Nothing has silenced Syrian activists more than the arrest of Haitham al-Maleh. He's known as the father of human rights in Syria and has never been afraid to give provocative interviews, like this one five years ago. HAITHAM AL-MALEH, ACTIVIST (Translation): The Baath’s ideals of unity, freedom and socialism have failed. Fragmentation relaced unity, repression replaced freedom. Despite having already spent many years in jail, he refuses to be silenced. NADIM HOURY: He felt somewhere that maybe he was sheltered by his age. This is a man who just turned 80 last year, and who has spent a good chunk of his adult life in jail. It was this 2009 phone interview with a Syrian TV station that triggered his most recent arrest. This secretly filmed footage shows the moment he was convicted. COURT HEARING (Translation): Second, to convict Haitham Khalil Al-Maleh of the crime of conveying false information that weakens the nation’s morale. He is to be imprisoned for a period of three years. In these rare images of the interior of the Syrian military court, the 80-year-old is under heavy guard. Al-Maleh is granted a few moments to comfort his wife - it is their last embrace before he is yet again sent behind bars. According to his son, his imprisonment has had a chilling effect on activists in Syria. IYAS MALEH, HAITHAM’S SON: The people were pretty much afraid, you know? If he is arrested, and nobody is able to do anything to free him, then, you know, why should we speak up? I caught with Iyas Maleh in Geneva, he has moved to Egypt to spearhead a campaign for his father's release. IYAS MALEH: His health condition is deteriorating drastically. Unfortunately, the government is not paying attention and I don't know if they can have that on their conscience if he dies in prison. Tonight, I'm accompanying Iyas as he receives yet another human rights medal on his father's behalf, this time from the Swiss-based Al Karama Foundation. IYAS MALEH: My father will come out of prison again by the will of God, stronger than before and he will continue his mission in life. Thank you. MICHAEL ROMIG, ALKARAMA FOUNDATION: He is an inspiration to all young human rights defenders like us. Certainly, I think he has contributed immensely to the spirit of human rights in the Middle East and to the breaking of that wall of fear. IYAS MALEH: It is a mixed feeling, really. I wish my father was here. So that makes me feel sad that he was not able to enjoy this, you know, himself, being present here. Human rights organisations aren't the only ones decrying Syria's hardline on activists. The detention of the young blogger, Tal al-Mallouhi, has sparked protests outside Syrian embassies around the world, from London, Paris, and even here in the Middle East. JAMAL (Translation): This campaign shocked the Syrian regime mainly because it had an Arab dimension; there was a demonstration in Egypt, in Yemen and in Pakistan – it was unprecedented for the Syrian regime. Inside Syria, Tal's supporter, Jamal, has been working on an unprecedented online campaign for her release. Jamal shows me how they have bombarded media sites to raise awareness of Tal's situation. REPORTER (Translation): You went for the Facebook pages of those in power. Like who? JAMAL (Translation): Hafez al- Assad, Bashar al-Assad, Asma al-Assad, it was the first time we Syrians… okay, we couldn’t go on a street protest – it was forbidden – the street was off limits. It was the first time we had an electronic protest – it was the first time we tried it and it made a big impact. We approached the Syrian authorities for this story, but they declined to comment. So far, Syria is showing little of the instability that has toppled the Egyptian and Tunisian regimes. But despite their lack of progress, and the risks to themselves, Syria's dissidents are not giving up. REPORTER: Why do you continue to pursue this? DR WALEED AL-BUNNI (Translation): What is the alternative? When you believe in an idea and you find out it is hard to realise, is it easy to let it go? To be without democracy, without freedom of the press and freedom of expression is the death of a nation. Love stories are numerous, sometimes for the sake of one woman, a man loses a part or all of his life – imagine when it is for a nation – a nation he really loved. YALDA HAKIM: Yaara Bou Melhem reporting there. Since finishing that story w e have learned that the young blogger, Tal al-Mallouhi, was sentenced to five years in jail. We heard that the young woman was escorted out of the courtroom under heavy guard - blindfolded and handcuffed. There is more from our reporter, where she talks about efforts to restrict internet access. Reporter/Camera YAARA BOU MELHEM Producer AARON THOMAS Editor WAYNE LOVE Original Music composed by VICKI HANSEN 20th February 2011
On the streets of Damascus, people are out enjoying the winter sunshine. Syria has long been an island of stability in a troubled region but the appearance of calm has come at a high price - the price of freedom for those who oppose the regime.