WRITTEN QUESTION E-3843/02 by Giuseppe Di Lello Finuoli (GUE/NGL) to the Council. Expulsion from Italy of the Al-Shari family.
Date: 2003-01-09
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU relations, Italy, Syria, death penalty, political refugee, removal, rights of aliens

18.9.2003

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 222 E/115

(2003/C 222 E/133)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3843/02

by Giuseppe Di Lello Finuoli (GUE/NGL) to the Council

Subject: Expulsion from Italy of the Al-Shari family

(9 January 2003)

The Italian police have handed over to the Syrian police the engineer Muhammad Al-Shari (who was
sentenced to death some years ago in Syria on the grounds of being a member of
the Muslim
Brotherhood), together with his wife and four children, after holding them in detention for five days at
Malpensa airport
in
circumstances amounting to a deliberate breach of the international conventions on asylum and the much-
lauded Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. The Al-Shari family had arrived from Iraq,
and at the very least they should have been ‘sent back’ to that country. Instead, they were handed back to
the Syrian dictatorship.

(Milan), during which time they were not allowed contact with third persons,

The author of this question hereby declares his intention to take this case to the European Court of
Human Rights in Strasbourg, and meanwhile asks the Council what steps it will take to ascertain whether
the death sentence decreed against Muhammad Al-Shari in Syria has been carried out or not, to state what
action it will take with a view to safeguarding the physical integrity of the Al-Shari family, and to call on
the Italian government to abide by its international commitments.

Joint answer
to Written Questions P-3822/02 and E-3843/02

(5 and 6 May 2003)

The Council has no information regarding the case raised by the Honourable Members.

In this field the Council is continuing its examination of the proposals for Directives on the qualification of
third country nationals and stateless persons as refugees or as persons who otherwise need international
protection, and on procedures for granting and withdrawing refugee status.

The purpose of those proposals is to establish minimum standards to be applied in circumstances raised by
the Honourable Members.

(2003/C 222 E/134)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-3825/02

by Avril Doyle (PPE-DE) to the Council

(20 December 2002)

Subject: Veterinary Medicine Directive

Will the Agricultural Council of Ministers be dealing with the Veterinary Medicine Directive?

If not, could the Council state which Council will be dealing with this most important issue?

What priority will be given to tabling this Directive on the relevant Council agenda?

Reply

(13 May 2003)

1.
The Commission proposed a package of measures to reform the Community’s pharmaceutical
legislation in November 2001. This package comprises a proposal for a new Regulation laying down
Community procedures for the authorisation and supervision of medicinal products for both human and
veterinary use as well as proposed amendments to the existing Directives on medicinal products for human
and veterinary use.

2.
The Council has given high priority to the work on these proposals. Discussions have essentially
taken place within a single forum, because of the close links between the three elements of the package.