Member of the Syrian Coalition Suheir Alatassi called on the International Committee of the Red Cross to follow up on the deal reached on Sunday between the Assad regime and detainees in Hama Central Prison to make sure the agreement is fully implemented.
A deal was reached on Sunday by the inmates of Hama Central Prison and the Assad regime whereby the Assad regime agreed to release the sick and elderly as a first step towards the release of all detainees. Only 21 detainees have been released so far.
Alatassi, who is also member of the opposition’s negotiating delegation to Geneva, said that so far, the agreement has been implemented only partially, adding that the prison inmates have not yet ended the mutiny they staged a week ago.
As part of the relentless efforts the Syrian Coalition has been making to ensure the release of detainees in Hama Central Prison, President Anas Alabdah on Sunday discussed the issue with the UN envoy Staffan de Mistura during a telephone conversation. Alabdah called on the UN envoy to put pressure on the Assad regime to release all detainees in the prison.
Alatassi highly praised the courage and determination shown by the prison inmates who brought to the fore the file of detainees in Assad’s prisons after the states sponsoring the Geneva negotiations had failed to do so.
Alatassi called upon the sponsor states of the Geneva negotiations, led by the United States, to press for making the International Committee of the Red Cross a guarantor of the agreement. She added that international resolutions on Syria, including the Geneva Communiqué of 2012, UNSC resolution 2254 and the cessation of hostilities agreement endorsed in UNSC resolution 2268, all demand the release of detainees. (Source: Syrian Coalition.)
