Urgent Call for the Release of Detainees and an open letter from Homs Central Prison

The Syrian Human Rights Committee (SHRC) has been in communication with influential civil groups in the main Syrian cities to enquire regarding prisoners of conscience, journalists, doctors, nurses and politicians who have been released following the presidential decree 71 issued on 23/10/2012. However, the civil groups have not been able to find significant numbers of those released.

SHRC calls for the release of all prisoners immediately, and to reveal the fate of those who have disappeared, releasing those who are alive among them. SHRC also calls for the creation of an independent committee to reveal the circumstances surrounding the death of the rest of the disappeared persons, and to transfer the results to an independent judicial body.

Syrian Human Rights Committee
25/10/2012

Background:

Open letter from prisoners of conscience in Homs Central Prison:

On 24-10-2012, welfare organisations offered aid to us, and we were and remain very grateful for this offer. However, we declined the offer due to the following reasons:
1- The decree issued on 23-10-2012 encompassed those who had been sentenced due to juvenile crimes such as theft, but it did not encompass prisoners of conscience as we had hoped and expected.
2- We, the prisoners of conscience, have never made aid our goal and aspiration. Rather, we strove for the freedom enshrined in the Syrian constitution, and which was contained in the priorities of political groups in Syria.
3- Finally, we hope that the welfare organisations will transfer the aid it delivered to us to our brothers, wives and children, for they are in greater need of it than us.

And we hereby declare our civil disobedience in Homs Central Prison, beginning from 23-10-2012
We address our letter to all those who have a conscience in this world, to work for our immediate release. Finally, we congratulate the Arabic and Islamic Ummah on the occasion of Eid ul-Adha

Signed by
Abu Athari al-Turkawi, Homs Central Prison, on behalf of 3000 Prisoners (male and female) of conscience