Autonomous Administration to issue general amnesty in Syria’s northeast
RAQQA, Syria (North Press) – The Autonomous Administration is preparing to issue a general amnesty for prisoners in northeast Syria, co-chair of the General Council of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria Farid Ati said Wednesday.
The Legal Committee of the General Council prepared the draft of the amnesty to be presented later to the Council to be ratified, he added in an exclusive statement to North Press.
The amnesty, that covers those guilty of crimes, would be issued soon, Ati added.
In a symposium held recently in Raqqa, the Executive Board called on the General Council to issue an amnesty in order to release Syrian families from Hawl Camp, Ilham Ahmed, head of the of Syrian Democratic Council (SDC), said, though Ati denied that the upcoming amnesty includes families from the camp. “Evacuating the camp is an administrative decision that had nothing to do with the [amnesty] decision,” Ati confirmed.
The release of Syrian families from the camp would be optional for those who wanted to leave, because it is a camp and not a detention center, he stated.
The Hawl Camp administration released on Wednesday a batch of dozens of ISIS families which came from areas in eastern Deir ez-Zor.
The released groups included 48 ISIS families consisting of 208 people.
The group was a series of 17 groups released under a tribal guarantee through which Syrian families returned to their areas, according to the camp administration.
Hawl Camp, west of Hasakah city, houses over 60,000 people, including civilians displaced by the Islamic State’s war in neighbouring Iraq as well as in Syria.
Riots have frequently erupted among residents of the camp. ISIS women have sought to impose their own rule, meting out punishment to those who disobey, and an unknown number have escaped.