42 Syrians Held over Parliament Candle-Lit Vigil

A Syrian rights activist expressed alarm on Monday after 42 protesters among 500 people holding a candle-lit vigil last week outside parliament demanding an end to killings were arrested, some violently.

A group of youths carrying candles staged the sit-in on Thursday in front of the parliament building in Damascus, "demanding an end to the killings," said Anwar Bunni, who heads the Center for Legal Research and Studies.

"Forty-two people were arrested, and some of them were seriously hurt" Bunni wrote on his Facebook page, denouncing the "savagery employed against peaceful protesters."

"They carried candles... to demand an end to the killings. They were attacked with massive brutality by security forces, who hit the demonstrators, including aged women," he wrote.

Although protests against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad have raged in Damascus suburbs and the provinces since March last year, they remain rare in the heart of the capital.

Last week, a woman was arrested after staging a solo protest outside parliament, also to demand an end to the killings which monitors number at more than 10,000 people since March last year.

A YouTube video posted online shows the young woman holding a red placard bearing the message: "Stop the killings. We want to build a Syria for all Syrians."

On Saturday, security forces also arrested journalist and writer Marie Issa and her husband, urologist Joseph Nakhle, "in front of their children," at their home in the Damascus suburb of Jaramana, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

It said they were arrested for their "peaceful activities in support of the revolution in Syria."