Urgent appeal for the release of political detainees
The risk of the spread of the coronavirus pandemic continues to pose a major threat to the lives of prisoners of conscience in Syrian prisons and detention centers, and can affect the lives of thousands and cause severe humanitarian disasters, especially in the inhumane conditions they suffer from, such as human overcrowding in cells, lack of health care, and Loss of immunity due to lack of food and its poor quality, in addition to severe torture and insect infestation in prisons.
The detainees in the regime’s prisons count tens of thousands, and the statistics differ in their numbers from a minimum of 85,000 detainees, the exact numbers of which are known only to the arresting authorities in all their diversity. Each security branch or military division has its own prison and investigation and detention centers, in addition to foreign militias that also maintain prisons and investigation centers, similarly a large number of detainees are in the prisons of the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the the Sham Liberation organisation (HTS).
The Syrian Human Rights Committee is calling on the Syrian regime to prevail over the humanitarian interest and release all detainees who face the risk of contracting the Coronavirus virus, which is spreading rapidly, especially as they include elderly persons and of weak immunity.
The same appeal is extended to the SDF and the HTS, and to each faction holding prisoners of conscience and political prisoners. SHRC hopes that everyone will follow the example of governments that have responded to similar human rights calls, such as Iran which has released 85,000 prisoners, Jordan that has released 3080 prisoners, Algeria that has released 5,037 prisoners, Bahrain that has released 901 prisoners, and Sudan that have released 4,217 prisoners, and Turkey has passed a law regulating the release of nearly 100,000 prisoners.
The Syrian Human Rights Committee releases this call as it senses the imminent danger that threatens the lives of thousands of political detainees unless the authorities take urgent measures to release them, and not just contented with the release of some criminal detainees.
Syrian Human Rights Committee
12/4/2020