Omar Hayssam convicted for terrorism

Hayssam in fact received two sentences – 20 years for terrorism and 15 under Law 535 (2004) on the Combating and Prevention of Terrorism – and he will serve the longer of the two. The Court also ordered the seizure of USD 30,000 and moral damages of EUR 2 M for each of the three Romanian journalists kidnapped in Iraq. Some of his civil rights were also banned for a period of ten years after serving the imprisonment sentence. The Syrian businessman, currently in Lebanon, stated that he was not surprised at all by the decision of the Court of Appeals passed yesterday. ‘It was no surprise. Since I was serving time in the Police General Inspectorate arrest facilities I have known it’ Hayssam stated on Realitatea TV, adding that he was going to bring further evidence during the appeal proceedings the date for which has not yet been set. The Syrian nevertheless indicated that the people who are truly responsible for the abduction of the journalists were free in Romania and that the intelligence services knew who they are. Hayssam also said that he had no reason to come to Romania to be made ‘the scapegoat by the Romanian justice’. He admitted that he had been permanently monitored by the Romanian intelligence but that he had left the country ‘with no problem or obstacle’.