A Syrian businessman from Aleppo, Sameer Nashar, announced yesterday that more than 200 lawyers from various parts of Syria signed a petition expressing their readiness to serve on a defending commission for 14 civil activists who were brought before the military court and charged with being members of a secret society and provoking conflict and sedition in the country. The penalty for this is three years imprisonment. Nashar said this is the first time that 200 lawyers propose to work in the same case. The 14 defendants belong to various social strata and were brought before the military court after attending a seminar on reforms in Syria. Most of them were released after spending one night in prison, pending their trial.