The Syrian Coalition called on the international community and human rights organizations to exercise pressure on the Assad regime to allow international monitors into its prisons. The Coalition said detainees are being subjected to widespread torture and summary executions in Assad’s prisons.
Member of the Coalition’s legal committee Hisham Marwa said that the Assad regime has not abided by international resolutions on Syria, especially those regarding the release of detainees. According to estimates by human rights organizations, more than 250,000 people are currently detained in the prisons of the Assad regime.
Marwa pointed out that war crimes are taking place against detainees in the prisons of the Assad regime, especially the Sednaya Prison near Damascus. Marwa said that detainees are subjected to unimaginable torture, calling on the international community to take legal action to stop these unacceptable crimes.
Amnesty International launched a campaign under the title “End the Terror in Syria Prisons” calling on the international community and human rights organizations to ramp up pressure the Assad regime to allow independent monitors to enter the prisons which the watchdog group described as “brutal” and to allow them to conduct an independent investigation.
Marwa went on to say that human rights violations and crimes in the prisons of the regime have long been exposed, stressing that torture and extrajudicial killings are all crimes that must be addressed. Marwa said the Coalition regularly sends detailed reports to international human rights organizations, the UN Commission of Inquiry, and the International Committee of the Red Cross on the crimes and violations carried out by the Assad regime against detainees.
Member of the Coalition’s political committee Oqab Yahya said that the issue of detainees has not yet to attract full attention of the international community, which encouraged the Assad regime to ignore all international resolutions involving the issue of detainees.
Yahya stressed that the Coalition will continue to press for the enforcement of international resolutions and accountability for war crimes as well as the disclosure of the fate of detainees in the prisons of the regime and their immediate release. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department + Agencies)
