{"id":268,"date":"2011-06-02T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-06-02T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","slug":"","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/?p=268","title":{"rendered":"Syria must release all prisoners of conscience under amnesty"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nSyria must release all prisoners of conscience under
\namnesty <\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\nThe Syrian government’s crackdown on protesters has sparked
\nglobal outcry\n<\/p>\n

\n2 June 2011\n<\/p>\n

\nAmnesty International has called on Syria’s President to
\nfully implement a “general amnesty” by immediately freeing all prisoners of
\nconscience, including those detained because of their participation in peaceful
\nprotests.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe call came amid reports that several hundred prisoners,
\nincluding about nine prisoners of conscience, have already been released. But
\nSyrian human rights activists told Amnesty International the releases appear to
\nbe at random with many hundreds of people still detained, many of them
\nincommunicado.\n<\/p>\n

\n“The announced amnesty, even if it proves substantive, does
\nnot go far enough,” said Malcolm Smart.\n<\/p>\n

\n“If President al-Assad’s announcement is to have any
\ncredibility, all the prisoners of conscience who have languished in Syria’s
\njails for years must be released and he must take concrete steps to stop the
\nsecurity forces from committing gross human rights abuses.”\n<\/p>\n

\nPresident Bashar al-Assad announced on Tuesday that he was
\nissuing a general amnesty for those imprisoned for offences committed before 31
\nMay 2011, including members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood and other
\n“politically affiliated” prisoners.\n<\/p>\n

\nMost of those released following the amnesty announcement
\nhad been arrested in connection with the current popular protests and held in
\ndetention centres run by Syrian security forces.\n<\/p>\n

\nAmnesty International has also learned of the release of
\nnine prisoners of conscience who had been in prison before the current protests
\nbegan.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe amnesty announcement came ahead of a key UN Security
\nCouncil debate on the growing crisis in Syria.\n<\/p>\n

\n“The UN Security Council must not be hoodwinked by the
\namnesty releases into letting up pressure on the Syrian leadership, whose
\npromises to allow greater freedoms have proved so hollow," said Malcolm
\nSmart.\n<\/p>\n

\n“The Security Council must refer Syria to the ICC Prosecutor
\nas soon as possible and make clear to President al-Assad and those around him
\nthat they will be held internationally accountable for the crimes that are
\nbeing committed by their forces against the people of Syria. The victims of
\nthose crimes demand no less.”\n<\/p>\n

\nSince street protests demanding reform began in mid-March,
\nSyrian security forces have waged a campaign of violence against the
\nprotesters, killing at least 750 people.\n<\/p>\n

\nThousands have been arrested, with many being held
\nincommunicado and tortured. At least 12 detainees appear to have died as a
\ndirect result of torture in custody, among them two brothers, So’dat and Majd
\nal-Kurdy, from the western town of Tel Kelakh. When their bodies were returned
\nto their family at the end of May, witnesses said both corpses had knife cuts
\non the chest and legs and Majd’s penis had been cut off.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe government has said it is under attack from “armed
\nterrorist gangs” as justification for the crackdown, which has seen army tanks
\nshell residential areas of Dera’a and other cities. Independent reporting of
\nthe protests and the security forces’ brutal response has been blocked and
\ninternational media have not been allowed inside the country.\n<\/p>\n

\nhttp:\/\/www.amnesty.org\/en\/news-and-updates\/syria-must-release-all-prisoners-conscience-under-amnesty-2011-06-02<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\nSyria must release all prisoners of conscience under
\namnesty <\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\nThe Syrian government’s crackdown on protesters has sparked
\nglobal outcry, Amnesty International has called on Syria’s President to
\nfully implement a “general amnesty” by immediately freeing all prisoners of
\nconscience, including those detained because of their participation in peaceful
\nprotests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}