|
Syria Frees Nine Political Prisoners Under Presidential Amnesty
DAMASCUS, Nov. 19 (News Agencies) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who freed 600 political prisoners in 2000, has granted amnesty to nine more this year, news agencies reported Monday.
According to a human rights association, Syrian authorities have released nine jailed members of a banned communist party and a rival wing of the ruling Ba'ath party under a presidential amnesty, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
"They started on Sunday evening by freeing nine" under a pardon to mark the 31st anniversary of late president Hafez al-Assad's rise to power, the president of the Defense Committees for Human Rights in Syria told AFP.
Aktham Naaisseh said some of the detained had been held since 1987, others since 1992. He added that more releases are expected to follow of prisoners from the Muslim Brotherhood and the Iraqi branch of the pan-Arab Ba'ath party.
One of the freed members of the communist workers' party, Akram Bounni, told AFP he spent more than 14 years in prison.
"I was freed along with seven other communists ... without completing our sentences," said Bounni. He called for the release of all his colleagues, some of whom had now served 27 years behind bars.
The former prisoner singled out Riad Turk, a prominent member of the party, who was released in 1998 after 17 years in jail, but was detained again on September 1.
He was part of a group of 10 opposition figures - including members of parliament Maamun Homsi and Riad Seif - who were rounded up in August and September.
The deputies have been on trial since the end of October and risk prison terms of between five years and life if convicted on charges of trying to change Syria's constitution by illegal means.
According to Naaisseh, Syria has between 1,000 and 2,000 political detainees.
President Bashar al-Assad, who succeeded his father in July 2000, granted an amnesty to 600 political prisoners from different political movements in November 2000.
|
