Yasser Al-Farhan, Coordinator of the Syrian National Commission for Detainees and Missing Persons, stressed that war crimes and genocide is taking place in the prisons of the Assad regime, calling on the United Nations to focus on the issues of detainees in Syria and exert pressure on the regime to release them.
Al-Farhan said that the file of crimes committed by the Assad regime against detainees is one of the most urgent ones, pointing to the importance of serious action to issue binding resolutions to put an end to the arrests and systematic torture against detainees.
Al-Farhan pointed out that mass arrests and execution of detainees in the Assad regime’s prisons are still ongoing. These atrocities have already been confirmed by several human rights reports and activists, he added, stressing that this must put greater responsibility on the United Nations to save the lives of detainees.
Moreover, Al-Farhan stressed the need to implement the recommendations of UN investigators to refer perpetrators of violations against detainees to fair and immediate trials, release the remaining detainees, and prevent new arrests outside the law in accordance with the international resolutions, most notably the Geneva Communique of 2012 and UN Resolution 2254.
Al-Farhan also called on the United Nations and international organizations to take urgent, concerete steps to address this issue, including by making regular visits to detention centers and ensuring access for the relevant international organizations to these centers in order to ascertain the situation inside. (Source: Syrian National Coalition’s Media Department)
