The United States on Monday strongly urged Syria's President Bashar al-Assad to free jailed writer Michel Kilo and other political activists imprisoned for expressing their personal views.
State Department spokesman Tom Casey criticized Syria for what he said were "harsh" judgments against Kilo and others.
"These latest sentences are evidence of the Syrian regime's continued contempt for human rights," Casey said in a statement. "We call on President al-Assad to unconditionally release all prisoners of conscience."
The United States has been harshly critical for what it sees as Syria's destabilizing role in both Lebanon and Iraq but broke two years of isolation policy against Damascus when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met Syria's foreign minister this month on the sidelines of a conference in Egypt.
A Syrian court on Sunday sentenced Kilo to three years in jail on charges of "weakening national feelings" after he criticized government policy toward neighbor Lebanon.