Syria: A Syrian state security court yesterday acquitted Aktham Naisse, head of Defence of Democratic Liberties and Human Rights, arrested in April 2004 and charged with taking part in anti-government activities.
Released on $200 bail after four months in prison, Mr Naisse was cleared of all charges. His acquittal could herald the freeing of three other high-profile political prisoners, dissident deputy Riyadh Seif, economist Aref Dalila, and rights activist Mamoun Homsi, jailed in 2001 during a crackdown on reformers.
A European Union delegation which recently visited Damascus was told the three men would be released soon.
Since he assumed the presidency in 2000 on his father's death, Syrian president Bashar Assad has freed hundreds of political prisoners but was unable to release them all because of resistance from the security services.
The situation changed when the ruling Baath party congress met on June 6th-9th. Dr Assad took charge, overcame old guard resistance to change, compelled senior figures to retire, shook up the security agencies, and initiated radical reform of the party's old-fashioned socialist ideology.
This cleared the way for implementation of his strategy for transforming Syria's one-party regime into a pluralistic system and its command economy into a social market regime.
Dr Bouthaina Shaaban, spokeswoman and minister of emigrant affairs, said Syrians eager for change and foreign observers initially underestimated the party congress. She revealed it had ushered in an entirely new approach.
"Everything was discussed frankly - there were no taboos," she said. The 1,250 delegates recognised that "the Baath party has to regain the people's confidence" by introducing economic reform and the rule of law and amending the constitution.
She said the challenge posed by the US, which is demanding "regime change" in Damascus, and the disasters in "Palestine and Iraq provide an incentive to Syrians to establish order and maintain the security and sovereignty of the country".
Syrians only realised Dr Assad meant business when he fired powerful security bosses and broke the party's hold on senior posts by appointing as deputy premier for economic affairs Dr Abdullah Dardari, a western-educated non-Baathist Damascene.
The elevation of Dr Dardari and other Damacenes also brought the capital, excluded from power for decades, back into government and signalled that western expertise is essential. Dr Dardari, who heads the State Planning Commission, is an architect of the reform programme.
He told The Irish Times that during the first meeting he chaired of the inter-ministerial economic committee on June 20th he felt the "ideological barrier [to change] had been lifted".
The next meeting, to be presided over by the president, will lay down "steps for economic reform till the end of the year". The party's leadership has also set a deadline for a draft law for multi-party elections.
"The president wants a detailed agenda," he said. "Political and economic reforms must move in parallel. Which comes first is no longer an issue. They are interrelated and must walk hand in hand. We must recreate the middle class as the back- ground for a healthy political life. A more open participatory system encourages people to invest. Arab and Syrian money is already coming here.
"Billions are being invested in projects. Ports, roads and airports are being privatised with the aim of making Syria the transport hub of the Euro-Med region.
"If Syria is prosperous and stable, it will quell fundamentalism and extremism and provide growth for the whole region .. Syria is a trend-setter. If Syria adopts reforms, others will follow."
Dr Nabil Sukkar, a leading economic analyst, is optimistic. "We have crossed the threshold of a market economy. Now we can accelerate privatisation. We are setting timetables and moving step by step." He warned it could take a year or two before results appear.
Sami Moubayed, another independent commentator, was equally upbeat. He said the prime mover of the reform programme, the president, "is very popular. The exodus from Lebanon did not tarnish his image. He is accessible. He goes to restaurants and concerts, takes his children to the bumper cars, talks to people."
An old Baathist who gave his "life and blood to the party" observed: "I don't know if the young newcomers can succeed .. We are standing in sewage water. We need democracy within the party and the society. People must be chosen for posts by merit, not appointed."