The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) said that the Assad regime released 547 detainees in the period from May 1st to mid-July under the latest so-called amnesty decree, stressing that the Assad regime is still detaining about 132,000 people.
The Network pointed out that among those released were 61 women and 16 people who were children at the time of their arrest.
It added that the released detainees included at least 158 people who had their security status settled prior to their arrest and were given a pledge not to be detained by the regime’s security apparatus. They also included 28 returnees to Syria from abroad, including four women.
The monitoring group called on the international community to pressure the regime to release about 132,000 people who are still in its custody, of whom about 87,000 people are forcibly disappeared.
It stressed the need to force the Assad regime to abolish the exceptional courts and nullify all rulings issued by them. It made it clear that these courts violate many of the basic rights of the Syrian citizens, adding that it does not believe that “any of these demands will be met without a political transition that puts an end to the tyranny and brutality of the regime’s security forces.”
President of the Syrian Opposition Coalition (SOC), Salem Al-Meslet, had earlier sent a letter to the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the President of the UN General Assembly Abdullah Al-Shahed, and the President of the UN Security Council for the current session and the Permanent Representative of the United States to the UN Linda Thomas Greenfield regarding the false amnesty issued by the Assad regime for detainees in its custody.
Al-Meslet stressed that the so-called amnesty issued by the criminal Bashar al-Assad is nothing but a ruse to cover up the Tadamon Massacre that the Guardian newspaper has revealed in recent months.
Al-Meslet pointed out that the Assad regime has manipulated the feelings of the detainees’ families, citing the heart-wrenching photos of families waiting in public squares for any news about their loved ones.
(Source: SOC’s Media Department)
