The Syrian authorities have released around 60 detainees since Sunday under a new amnesty decree considered the most comprehensive since the start of the conflict and which applies to crimes linked to "
terrorism
", indicated on Monday May 2 a Syrian NGO.
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Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had already announced several amnesties since the start of the war in 2011, which included numerous exceptions, the last of which was in May 2021, a few weeks before his re-election for a fourth term.
"
More than 60 detainees have been released since Sunday in several Syrian regions, some of whom have spent at least ten years
" in the regime's prisons, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH).
“Tens of thousands of detainees” eligible
The decree provides "
to grant a general amnesty for terrorist crimes committed by Syrians
" before April 30, 2022, "
with the exception of those resulting in the death of a human being and those provided for by the anti-terrorism law
", the Syrian presidency said on social media on Saturday.
This new decree, published on Saturday - two days before the Eid-el-Fitr holiday which celebrates the end of Ramadan - is considered by human rights activists to be the most comprehensive.
According to the director of the OSDH, Rami Abdel Rahmane, "
tens of thousands of detainees
" are eligible, many of whom are accused of crimes related to "
terrorism
".
Rami Abdel Rahmane describes this accusation as "
vague
" to "
convict the detainees arrested arbitrarily
".
Lawyer Nora Ghazi, director of the organization "
No Photo Zone
" which provides legal assistance to detainees, the disappeared and their families, considered that this decree had the "
broadest framework since the beginning of the Syrian revolution
".
"
A lot of people are expected, but it will take a long time
," she said.
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According to a list of 20 names circulated by activists on social media, detainees who spent years in Sednaya prison, which Amnesty International called a "
human slaughterhouse
", are among those released.
Since the beginning of the conflict, nearly half a million people have entered the regime's prisons and more than a hundred thousand of them have died under torture or as a result of appalling conditions of detention, according to the OSDH .
The Syrian regime is also accused of torture in prisons, rape and sexual assault, as well as extrajudicial executions.