Syrian regime freed less than 6% of detainees in presidential amnesties

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has freed less than 6 percent of people detained by the regime during the country’s 11-year war, according to a new report.

While 7,531 arbitrarily arrested detainees were released by presidential decrees during the country's civil war, roughly 135,253 political prisoners are still in custody or forcibly disappeared, according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR).

A total of 21 amnesty decrees have been issued since anti-government protests in Syria began in 2011, according to the SNHR.

The monitor estimate that it would take hundreds of years more to release the remaining prisoners under similar orders.

"If Assad stopped arbitrarily arresting Syrians, he would need 408 amnesty decrees to release the [remaining] prisoners... with 21 [released] in twelve years... that means [it would take] 233 years to release the remaining [135,253] prisoners," SNHR chairman Fadel Abdul Ghany told The New Arab.

"This proves in a very powerful way that those decrees [issued] were in vain... it means those detainees and forcibly displaced people will never be released or have their fate revealed if Assad is still in power, that is the reality and the truth," he added.

Hundreds of thousands of Syrians were arrested, often for participating in the uprising against Assad, in cases devoid of any clear charge or evidence, SNHR say, referring to the mass detention campaign that began in Syria following the uprising.

"Arbitrary arrests have been among the most widespread violations perpetrated by the Syrian regime against participants in the popular uprising... grounded in the Syrian regime’s battle to survive without making any meaningful political changes."

Report: Breaking Down the Amnesty Decrees Issued by the #SyrianRegime Between March 2011 & October 2022
Under the decrees, 7,531 detainees have been released, yet roughly 135,253 are still detained or forcibly disappeared#Syria #SNHR
See the full report: https://t.co/18ktew5rH1 pic.twitter.com/55SZzl7mEw

— Syrian Network (@snhr) November 16, 2022

"Therefore, those are unlawful arbitrary arrests that violate international human rights law, as well as the Syrian constitution and domestic laws," the monitor added. 

Horrific conditions, torture, abuse and medical neglect are standard in these detention facilities, as well as arbitrary execution of detainees.

The families of detainees, most of whom were rounded up in the crackdown on 2011 anti-government protests brutally suppressed by the Assad regime, have to rely on testimonies from released prisoners to get news on their relatives.

Many have had to pay huge sums in bribes to regime officials in exchange for information.

One of the regime's most well-known detention facilities, the notorious Sednaya prison, has been described by human rights organisations as a "human slaughterhouse". An estimated 13,000 people were killed by hanging there in four years.

Over 500,000 people have been killed throughout the ongoing conflict in Syria, and around half of the pre-war population has been displaced, mostly as a result of regime bombardment of civilian areas.