Riad Seif

Riad Seif (Arabic رياض سيف, DMG Riyad Saif, born November 25, 1946 in Damascus ) is a Syrian businessman and dissident. During the Damascus Spring in 2001, he led the opposition " forum for national dialogue ", but was arrested at the end of the year and sentenced to five years in prison. After serving his sentence he was released in 2006, but in 2008 and 2011 re- arrested for a shorter time. Seif was from 1994 to 2001 an independent member of the Syrian Parliament. Since at least 2011, he has cancer.

Career

Seif was born in 1946 as the son of a carpenter in the conservative Damascus district of al - Midan in a large family with many children. After the sixth class, he went to a local shirt factory in the doctrine, in order to contribute to the family income. However, he continued the school beside the work and began after his graduation to study at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Damascus, which, however, he dropped out around 1963 with two of his brothers to set up a small textile operation. With the import of substances of operating continuously grew. The mid-1970s shared the Seif operation in three individual companies, since the two brothers set conservatively Riads whose idea of ​​women to occupy as workers, believed to be un-Islamic.

Ascent to the industrialists

Riad Seif had with his business model significantly faster and more sustainable success than his brothers. His policy was unorthodox for Syria: Seif paid his employees better than the state-owned enterprises, they participated in the competition, held it to be self-responsibility and offered them social services such as a crèche and a bus service that brought the young workers home at night. The other pillar of his success were bartering with the Soviet Union, in which the Syrian government debt and interest abbezahlte in goods. This meant that the Syrian state Seif paid in Syrian Lira, whereas its products were delivered to the Soviet Union. He could have achieved higher prices for fashion products that were not produced in the Soviet Union itself. In the meantime, Seif employed over 1000 employees and thus led the largest industrial company in the country.

With the collapse of the Eastern Bloc, the barter trade came to a standstill. Seif was close to bankruptcy and had to borrow from friends and employees money to build a new enterprise. He began in 1993 sportswear for Adidas to produce and eventually won the concession for the independent marketing of Adidas products in Syria. In the hope that his business ideas ready to hold a successful model for the whole country, he was a candidate in 1994 for the first time for Parliament and was elected with the highest number of votes at all.

On August 2, 1996 died son Seif Iyab. Seif claimed in a 2007 newspaper article critical of the government, this was done under "mysterious and suspicious circumstances ".

1998 candidate Seif again and was re-elected with the support of many young people, current and former workers and some intellectuals. Again, it focused primarily a reform of the industrial and economic policy, but his focus drifted more and more to corruption, in which he accounted for the second main enemy of the Syrian economy as economic incompetence of many Syrian businessmen. The response of the Syrian regime was prompt and as Seif was with high tax charges covered up to the public assertion of the Treasury that his Abgeordnetenbüro am at foreclosure. Seif was forced to sell his company and to live by the support of his relatives. In 1999, he published a booklet that documented the confrontation with the Treasury, his parliamentary speeches were printed distribution.

Damascus Spring and opposition activity

After the death of President Hafiz al -Assad and the assumption of power by his son Bashar Seif hoped for political reform. His relationship with the young head of state was good and Bashar al -Assad seemed Riad Seif to be weighed. During the so-called " Damascus Spring " came in 2001 actually be a short phase of liberalization in Syria, while many intellectuals came together for political events and took advantage of the new freedom of speech emphatically. However, the situation quickly downed back in the repression. After subliminal campaigns of the regime against Seif whose commitment could not curb his " Forum for National Dialogue " in February 2001, was banned along with a number of other political clubs, a judicial investigation was launched shortly thereafter. Despite these obvious warning shots of the regime Seif not held back, but attacked in Parliament the controversial entrepreneur and President cousin Rami Machluf, and criticized the circumstances surrounding the award of the GSM licenses in Syria, one of which went to Machlufs SyriaTel.

On September 5, 2001, three to four hundred people attended a panel discussion together in Seif's apartment. Demands for a genuine multi-party system were expressed. The next day, Seif's deputies immunity was lifted and he was arrested along with other civil rights activists.

Seif was sentenced in 2002 to five years in prison, partly because of " attacks on the authority of the state " and " hate speech ". Amnesty International followed the case continuously and sat down several times for Seif release a. Seif still had to serve his entire sentence and in 2006 was finally released.

2008 Seif was arrested and jailed, this time for his signing of the Damascus Declaration of October of 2005.

6 May 2011 Seif was arrested a second time in connection with the ongoing protests against the Syrian government. The following day indictment was issued for violating the ban on demonstrations against him.

On October 7, 2011 Seif was attacked by about ten members of the security forces of the Syrian government's violent. The attack occurred when Seif al- Hassan Mosque left after Friday prayers in Damascus Midan district. Seif was carrying a number of injuries, including a broken arm.

Awards

• Human Rights Prize of the city of Weimar in 2003