Amnesty for opponents of the regime gives prisoners new hope

In a rare concession to the opposition, the Asad regime has released hundreds of political prisoners. In view of the experience with previous amnesties, however, one should be skeptical that this signals a change of course.

Hoping to see each other again: Relatives of prisoners wait under a bridge in Damascus on May 3 for the release of more prisoners.

Omar Sanadiki/AP

For the first time since the start of the uprising in Syria, President Bashar al-Asad has issued an amnesty for prisoners who have been detained on terrorism charges. Hundreds of political prisoners have been released since the publication of Decree 7 ending the Islamic month of Ramadan on April 30. Justice Minister Ahmad al-Sayyed presented the amnesty as a contribution to “comprehensive national reconciliation”. The decree gives the families of the more than 130,000 prisoners in the regime’s dungeons new hope that they will finally be able to see their loved ones again.

The research center specializing in Syria Coar called the amnesty “the most substantial concession made by the Syrian government to its political and military opponents since the beginning of the conflict”. The think tank spoke of hundreds of prisoners who had been released since the beginning of May – and the trend is rising. The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) counted alone 193 releases in the first four days after the amnesty was announced. Those who were released spent between two and eight years in prison.

Damascus did not say exactly who will benefit from the amnesty, nor how many detainees will be released. According to the SNHR, the regime has detained or forcibly disappeared more than 132,000 men, women and children since the conflict began. It is unclear how many of them are still alive. There is a lack of adequate food and medical treatment in the prisons. Torture is commonplace, as are extrajudicial executions.

The relatives suffer from the uncertainty

Because the security forces simply dropped the released people in public places in the city in the first few days after the amnesty, many relatives gathered there to await further releases. When a crowd formed under a bridge in Damascus, the Justice Ministry called on families to go home. It assured that those affected by the amnesty would be gradually released once the legal formalities had been completed.

Many relatives are struggling with the ongoing uncertainty. “Please tell us when we make an inquiry if they are there, if they are alive or dead,” pleaded a woman at the congregation of the families in Damascus to the station Sham FM, which is close to the regime. “My father and my brother have been missing for nine years. To this day we know nothing about them. Just tell us where they are.” The post was later deleted by the broadcaster.

Young Syrian activist Wafa Mustafa, whose father Ali has disappeared into the regime’s dungeons since 2013, wrote on Twitter, every time she reads the first name Ali on the list of freedmen, her heart expands. However, when she read another last name, her chest tightened. Mustafa, who now lives in exile in Berlin, has been campaigning for years to ensure that the international community does not forget the fate of the prisoners.

Activists are skeptical about the amnesty

Coar’s experts saw the amnesty as a sign of the regime’s goodwill. It is possibly a first, small step on the part of the government to end the current chapter of the conflict. After Asad won the conflict for the time being, he is trying to be recognized again as Syria’s legitimate president in the Middle East. An important achievement the Syrian ruler achieved in mid-Marchwhen he was received by the United Arab Emirates for the first time since the civil war began in 2011.

However, many human rights activists are skeptical that the amnesty signals a real change of course. Rather, activist Wafa Mustafa saw the amnesty as a message from the Asad regime that it still controls the country. By keeping loved ones in suspense, the regime has left millions in Syria drained and exhausted searching for their loved ones. she told the online newspaper The New Arab.

A study by the researcher Pieter Both on the use of amnesties during the war also gives reason for skepticism. In the published in October 2021 Study “Manipulating National Trauma” Both writes that since the outbreak of the uprising, Asad has tactically used amnesties to improve his reputation or achieve other goals. Often, however, the amnesties were not really implemented or were mainly of use to ordinary criminals.

Tactical tool of a repressive regime

From an amnesty after the protests began in March 2011 imprisoned Islamists in particular benefited. Thus, many later jihadist leaders were released from the notorious Saidnaya prison. Apparently, Asad wanted the initially peaceful protest movement to become radicalized so that he could present himself as the lesser evil in the face of the Islamist threat to his own citizens and to other countries.

A large proportion of the twenty amnesties since 2011 have affected deserters and men who had evaded conscription. Above all, Asad wanted to use this to fill up the thinned out ranks in his army. Other amnesties on the occasion of public holidays or the presidential elections in 2014 and 2021 only applied to a limited group of prisoners. Unlike the current amnesty, opponents of the regime who had been arrested on terrorism charges were always excluded.

In addition, in the weeks following an amnesty, more people were often detained than were released. In many cases, the number of executions in prisons increased as a result of amnesties. Both therefore warns against understanding amnesties as a concession. Rather, they are an instrument of a repressive regime. “Even if Asad presents amnesties as a sign of tolerance and forgiveness, his regime is not interested in real reconciliation, but in its survival. Excessive force remains central to this goal.”


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