Press release
Syrian Opposition Coalition
Department of Media and Communications
June 26, 2022
On the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, the Syrian Opposition Coalition (SOC) stresses that the international community’s condemnation of the severe torture that is taking place in the prisons of the Assad regime has not changed anything in Syria for the past eleven years. The murderous regime continues to brutally torture detainees to death.
The international community’s failure to take deterrent, effective measures against the Assad regime has encouraged it to continue brutalizing the detainees. Although many international human rights organizations described the regime’s prisons as human slaughterhouses, hundreds of thousands of Syrians are still languishing in these prisons with their lives at serious daily risk due to the continuing widespread torture.
The SOC stresses the need for saving the lives of detainees and disclosing the fate of the forcibly disappeared. It also stresses that the release of detainees must not be subject to negotiations, bargaining or blackmail by the regime and its allies.
The SOC stresses the need to prevent the use of the issue of detainees as a bargaining chip. It calls on the international community to work seriously and effectively to ensure accountability for the murderous Assad regime and its symbols, chief among them is Bashar al-Assad. It also calls for achieving political transition in Syria in accordance with UN resolutions, most notably UN resolution 2254 so as to ensure a safe and dignified life in which justice and freedom prevail in Syria.
