Prisoners of the Syrian regime in the Hama Central Prison in central Syria on Thursday put out cries to all Syrians to move to cancel the death sentences issued against them after years of imprisonment.
This came after a prisoner in the Hama Central Prison confirmed that 40 prisoners had received orders that they be moved to the Saydnaya Central Prison in the Damascus countryside, including 11 prisoners arrested by the regime for going out in protests. Death sentences had been issued against them in 2016, however they were not implemented at that time because the prisoners carried out a strike in the prison.
Activists circulated an audio recording from one of the prisoners who was sentenced to death, which Smart News listened to, in which the prisoner says that the crime he will be executed for is going out in a protest and calling for freedom, adding that he did not carry a weapon and that he never hurt a child, employee, security member or member of the regime forces.
The prisoner added in the recording that he was arrested by regime forces seven years ago, and that he was in the Saydnaya prison for a number of years, and then was moved to Hama Central Prison, and now would be moved to Saydnaya to be executed there.
The prisoner added that he called on “all Syrians without distinction” saying that the life of those sentenced hung on the necks of all Syria’s people, asking them to mobilize to save them and to “get them out from behind bars.”
The prisoner added that the regime’s military judge, Firas Dunya, had informed them of the need to attend their trials assuring that unjust rulings would not be issued against them, only for them to be sentenced to death in the end.
A prisoner inside the prison previously told Smart that the regime’s justice minister and military judge visited the Hama prison two days ago and informed 40 prisoners of the decision to transfer them to Saydnaya prison, including 11 who had been sentenced to death and nine to life imprisonment.
The prisoners carried out a strike inside the prison at the start of May 2016, demanding that the death sentences issued against them be canceled. The regime forces refused their requests although the sentences were not carried out at the time.
Last year, the director of the Hama Central Prison, Brigadier General Ziyad al-Mohamed, resigned based on a request by prisoners to the deputy interior minister after “a torture scandal inside the civilian prison.”
Amnesty International on February 7, 2017, issued a report under the title “Human Slaughterhouse,” in which it revealed that the regime had executed 13,000 people in the Saydnaya prison by hanging, mostly civilian opponents of the regime.
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
