DAMASCUS (IslamOnline) - A leading Syrian human rights activist Sunday praised last week's Presidential pardon of hundreds of political prisoners and said the detainees were now being released in patches.
"The total number of those to be released will be 622," said Habiba Abdelrahman, member of the Syrian Human Rights Defense Committee. "Releasing prisoners began immediately after the amnesty was announced on Wednesday. The order is being implemented to the letter. We are very happy about it."
Syrian President Bashar al-Asad ordered the release of a new group of political prisoners on Wednesday, the largest number since he came to office in a sign of new thinking towards political opponents in a country notorious for official brutality and grave human rights abuses.
Bashar al-Asad came to office in July after his father Hafez al-Asad died suddenly after thirty years in power.
The elder Asad had methodically formed a police state, often harshly muzzling voices of dissent. He banned any form of freedom of expression and his opponents faced persecution for the slightest expression of opposition.
Abdelrahman said those released included hundreds of members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood and dozens of Communist Party members. She said the releases mostly came from the notorious Sidania Prison, near the Syrian capital of Damascus, and Tadmour prison.
She added that some Lebanese prisoners might also be released soon, including leading Lebanese Islamist, Mostafa Khalil, expected to be released after two other Muslim activists were released a few months ago. The three men were arrested in the Lebanese port of Tripoli in 1988.
A member of the communist party, released earlier after 18 years behind bars, said that his fellow communists released this week reported "good treatment" by Syrian officials.
Fateh Jamous said members of his party were told that the government apologizes for the length of their stay in jail.
"We acknowledge that your imprisonment period was long," they reported an official as telling them minutes before they were released. "But the country was going through a hard time. But we acknowledge, too, that the authorities were responsible [for your sentences]."
The releases have created an atmosphere of optimism in this country of 17 million. Bashar, 34, has repeatedly promised Syrians democracy and freedom, but his amnesty has been the most dramatic political gesture to date.
