Anwar al-Bunni (, born 1959) is a Syrian human rights lawyer who has defended clients such as
Riad al-Turk,
Riad Seif, the owner of ''The Lamplighter'', (an independent newspaper shut down by the Syrian government),
Kurd
Kurds (), or the Kurdish people, are an Iranian peoples, Iranic ethnic group from West Asia. They are indigenous to Kurdistan, which is a geographic region spanning southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, and northeastern Syri ...
ish protesters, and "dozens of others."
Al-Bunni was born in
Hama
Hama ( ', ) is a city on the banks of the Orontes River in west-central Syria. It is located north of Damascus and north of Homs. It is the provincial capital of the Hama Governorate. With a population of 996,000 (2023 census), Hama is one o ...
to a Christian family active in dissident leftist politics.
[Wright, Robin, ''Dreams and Shadows : the Future of the Middle East'', Penguin Press, 2008, pp. 257, 8, 9.] According to an interview with American journalist
Robin Wright
Robin Gayle Wright (born April 8, 1966) is an American actress, producer and director. She has received accolades including a Golden Globe Award, and nominations for eight Primetime Emmy Awards.
Wright first gained attention for her role ...
, he became interested in defending dissidents after being beaten, bayonetted, and having his beard set on fire by Syrian soldiers during a military sweep of Hama in 1981.
Wright describes him as having spent "most of his life" defending Syria's political dissidents, often
pro bono
( English: 'for the public good'), usually shortened to , is a Latin phrase for professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment. The term traditionally referred to provision of legal services by legal professionals for people who a ...
, and having sold his automobile and office to pay his bills as a result.
[Wright, Robin, ''Dreams and Shadows : the Future of the Middle East'', Penguin Press, 2008, p. 257.] He was head of the short-lived
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...
-funded human rights training centre in Syria called the Center for Legal Research and Studies until it was shut down by the government following his 2006 arrest.
Al-Bunni defended
Damascus Spring activist
Aref Dalila at his 2002 trial. After presenting a blood-stained handkerchief as evidence that Dalila had been beaten at the prison, he was ordered from the court by a judge and banned from practicing before the
Supreme State Security Court.
2006–2011 imprisonment
In May 2006 he was detained by security forces after signing the
Beirut-Damascus Declaration calling for democratic reform. A year later he was given a five-year sentence for "spreading false or exaggerated news that could weaken national morale, affiliating with an unlicensed political association with an international nature, discrediting state institutions and contacting a foreign country", according to his lawyer.
He was also fined the equivalent of US$2,000 for operating the Center for Legal Research and Studies without government permission. Analysts described the sentence as more severe than those previously given for similar offenses, making it a "stark warning to the Syrian opposition".
Amnesty International
Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...
designated him a
prisoner of conscience
A prisoner of conscience (POC) is anyone imprisoned because of their race, sexual orientation, religion, or political views. The term also refers to those who have been imprisoned or persecuted for the nonviolent expression of their conscienti ...
, and U.S. President
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...
named al-Bunni in a speech as a political prisoner unfairly jailed by Syria.
After his release from prison in 2011, he continued to defend detainees.
2012–present: exile in Germany
Al-Bunni escaped from Syria in 2012, shortly after the
Houla massacre
The Houla massacre () was a mass murder of civilians by Ba'athist Syria, Ba’athist Syrian government forces that took place on May 25, 2012, in the midst of the Syrian Civil War, in the town of Taldou, in the Houla Region of Syria, a string o ...
, and later sought
political asylum
The right of asylum, sometimes called right of political asylum (''asylum'' ), is a juridical concept, under which people persecuted by their own rulers might be protected by another sovereignty, sovereign authority, such as a second country or ...
in Germany.
In Germany, al-Bunni participated in the
universal jurisdiction war crimes trial of
Anwar Raslan and Eyad al-Gharib. In June 2020, he provided testimony as a witness on "the horrors and the bureaucratic structures of Assad's jails and torture chambers", based on his five years as a prisoner in Syria and from his legal experience in representing victims. Al-Bunni worked with prosecutors to help find witnesses willing to testify in the trial.
Al-Bunni is more broadly interested in promoting
transitional justice
Transitional justice is a process which responds to human rights violations through judicial redress, political reforms and cultural healing efforts and other measures in order to prevent the recurrence of human rights abuse in a region or countr ...
.
Awards
In 2008, al-Bunni received the
Front Line Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk. The following year he was awarded the Human Rights Award by the
German Association of Judges., in 2018 he received the Franco-German Prize for 'Human Rights and the Rule of Law'.
Anwar features in Time Magazine's "The 100 Most Influential People of 2022".
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bunni, Anwar
1959 births
Amnesty International prisoners of conscience held by Syria
Living people
20th-century Syrian lawyers
Syrian democracy activists
Syrian dissidents
People from Hama
Syrian prisoners and detainees
Syrian torture victims
People of the Syrian civil war
21st-century Syrian lawyers