President of the Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression Mazen Darwish said that what is happening in Hama Central Prison is a direct result of the international community’s and the United Nation’s failure to fulfil their political and moral obligations regarding the purely humanitarian issues which were raised during the latest negotiations in Geneva.
Stopping attacks on civilians, lifting the blockades on the besieged areas, and the release of detainees are all humanitarian demands the Syrian opposition has insisted on as confidence-building measures.
Darwish said that the Assad regime allowed the Syrian Red Crescent (SRC) to get involved in the deal reached with the inmates of Hama Central Prison in order to avoid an intervention by the International Committee of the Red Cross. He added that the intervention of the Syrian Red Crescent is limited to moving the released detainees to liberated areas, noting that the SRC will not be assigned the role of a guarantor of the deal reached between the Assad regime and detainees in the prison.
Darwish pointed out that the sentences passed against the detainees in Hama Central Prison are all unjust and are politically-motivated.
Regime forces on Monday re-arrested one of two dozens of detainees who were released from Hama Central Prison on the same day. The detainee, Ahmad Nawaf Alshwaib, was arrested by regime forces while he was on his way to his home in Mount Hermon in Rural Damascus despite pledges by officials in the Assad regime’s Ministry of Interior and Justice as well as by the mediator of the deal Nawaf Almelhem not to re-arrest any of those who will be released.
Regime forces on Monday also raided the house of one of those who has been recently released in the city of Hama.
Member of the Syrian Coalition Suheir Alatassi on Monday 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 prison inmates 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 more than a week ago. (Source: Syrian Coalition + Almudun)
