DARAA, Syria (North Press) – While some families of prisoners held for years in Syrian jails are hoping and praying for the release of their missing family members with the recent general amnesty decree issued by the Syrian government, others have gone further to guarantee the release of their loved ones.
In Daraa, many people are paying bribes to include their family members’ names on the list of prisoners to be released.
Hussein al-Miqdad, a pseudonym for the brother of one of the detainees recently released under the amnesty decree, is from Daraa governorate, the birthplace of the Syrian uprising in south Syria. He does not deny that his family paid a 55 million Syrian pound (about $14,000) bribe to a government official to put his brother’s name on the list of those released.
Al-Miqdad said that his brother, who worked as a police officer in the government forces before defecting in early 2012, was arrested in November 2018 while he was at the Ministry of the Interior in the Syrian capital of Damascus.
His arrest came despite the fact that he, like other former opposition fighters, had settled his status under an agreement reached under Russian mediation between the opposition and the government in the summer of 2018.
The settlement agreement contained several terms, including the release of detainees and amnesty for individuals wanted by security services, and paved the way for the return of displaced and refugee residents.
Al-Miqdad explained that during the first year of his brother’s detention, they were unable to find out his whereabouts. After paying a bribe to one of the intelligence officers of the government forces, his family learned that he was being held in Sednaya Military Prison.
Ongoing arrests
Syrian president Bashar al-Assad on April 30 issued a decree granting general amnesty for terrorist crimes committed by Syrians before April 30, 2022. Although more than a week has passed since the decree was issued, thousands of families in Daraa and other Syrian governorates are still waiting for their detained relatives to be released.
The number of detainees who previously worked in the ranks of the opposition in Daraa has grown to 1,059 since the summer of 2018, most of whom reached settlement agreements with the government, according to a previous statement by Muhammad al-Shara’, a member of the Martyrs Documentation Office in Daraa.
The office has recorded more than 6,800 people from Daraa as being detained, missing, or forcibly disappeared. It also documented the killing of 25 people in 2021 as a result of being tortured in government prisons.
Al-Shara’ told North Press that as of Saturday, the office had documented the release of 115 detainees from Daraa.
He pointed out that the majority of the detainees who have been released were being held in Adra Prison, east of Damascus.
A number of detainees have also been released from Sednaya Military Prison and the security branches of the government forces, he stated.
Despite the issuance of the recent amnesty decree, arrests by the Syrian government against the people of Daraa governorate are still ongoing and have not stopped despite settlement processes, the last of which ended on 21 April, according to al-Shara’.
During the past month, the office documented the arrest and abduction of at least 31 persons, 11 of whom were released later that month, al-Shara’ told North Press.
Fake amnesty
After the issuance of the amnesty decree, hundreds of families of prisoners have gathered under al-Ra’is Bridge in the center of Damascus.
Early on May 3, the Ministry of Justice said in a statement that during the previous two days, hundreds of prisoners from various Syrian governorates had been released, and all those included by the amnesty would be released successively during the coming days.
The ministry did not publish any lists of the names or numbers of individuals included in the amnesty.
Since the issuance of the amnesty, the security services in Damascus have announced the release of 252 detainees, while dozens of families are still waiting for the arrival of new groups of detainees in various places around Damascus.
Other families are looking for their detained family members by posting their pictures on social media, in the hope of knowing their whereabouts or obtaining any information about their fate.
“The fake amnesty was highly and promptly amplified by media, and was over-exaggerated,” said Abdullah al-Hariri, a media activist in the eastern countryside of Daraa who used a pseudonym to speak on the record.
He added that Daraa residents expected the release of large numbers of detainees, given the large number of residents of the province who have been arrested since the spring of 2012 and are still detained today.
On May 5, the security services of the Syrian government released 72 detainees from Daraa governorate, according to the media activist. He confirmed that all the detainees released that day were arrested after the first settlement that took place in the summer of 2018.
The majority of those released were criminal cases and a small number of prisoners of conscience, according to al-Hariri.