Alkarama is surprised at the response which the Syrian authorities gave to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) when asked in 2006 whether Mr Nizar Rastanawi, a Syrian human rights defender, was still arbitrarily detained. The Syrian government responded that Mr Rastanawi had been released. Thus on 16 November 2006, the WGAD adopted Opinion 35/2006 in which they filed the case. Mr Rastanawi had in fact been detained since 18 April 2005 without charges or trial and only three days after the WGAD filed his case, Nizar Rastanawi was presented before State Security Court and condemned to four years in prison. He served these four years in Sednaya prison, but at the end of this sentence, on 18 April 2009, he was not released.