Coordination Committee of the Syrian revolution in Istanbul and the Association of Detainees and Missing Persons of Sednaya Prison called for holding a demonstration on Friday to denounce the crimes being committed by the Assad regime against detainees in its prisons. The calls came in response to the Assad regime’s recent issuance of death notices for thousands of detainees who died under torture.
The demonstration will be held under the title “Day of Rage for Victims of Torture in Assad’s Prisons.” Organizers of the demonstration called on Syrian activists and human rights organizations to gather in Istiklal Street in the Turkish city of Istanbul to convey the voice of the remaining detainees in Assad’s prisons and expose the Assad regime’s crimes against detainees as well as its crackdown on freedom of expression.
In recent weeks, the Assad regime has sent lists of names of thousands of detainees who died under torture in its prisons to civil registry departments in Syrian provinces.
Nadim Houry, director of Human Rights Watch’s terrorism and counterterrorism program, on Thursday said: “In the last few weeks, hundreds of Syrian families learned that their loved ones who had disappeared in government detention facilities had died. Many said that they found out as they requested routine records from the Syrian administration and were stunned to find that the authorities had recently registered their relatives as dead.”
“The Syrian government should not be allowed to get away with mass disappearances and murder again,” Houry said. “Families of the disappeared have a right to know what happened to their loved ones…There also needs to be accountability for the enforced disappearances and deaths in detention.”
Vice-president of the Syrian Coalition, Bader Jamous, earlier said that the Assad regime’s issuance of death notices revealed the multitude of war crimes and crimes against humanity taking place in the Assad regime’s detention facilities.
The Assad regime is taking revenge on those who revolted against its rule, Jamous said, adding that disclosure of these crimes, which occur under the cover of darkness, has once again showed the Assad regime’s lack of seriousness about engaging with the United Nations and the implementation of international resolutions on Syria.
Jamous called on the International Commission of Inquiry on Syria to investigate these crimes along with thousands crimes the Assad regime has committed over the past few years. (Source: Syrian Coalitions’ Media Department)
