Published : 07-05-2022
Chair of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic Paulo Pinheiro has asserted that detention in Syria is equivalent to disappearance.
This came during a conference held in the Belgian capital, Brussels, on Friday, on the fate of detainees in the prisons of Bashar Al-Assad's regime.
Pinheiro stressed that the futures of tens of thousands of Syrian civilians are unknown, most of whom have been in the regime's prisons for ten years.
He explained that predictions indicate that most detainees have been executed and buried in mass graves, and others subjected to torture and ill-treatment.
Pinheiro added that being arrested in Syria today is tantamount to disappearing and urged the need to establish an independent mechanism with international authorities to investigate the issue of disappeared civilians.
The UN official stressed that a delay in establishing this mechanism would make it more difficult to uncover the fate of these people.
According to the Syrian Network for Human Rights data, at least 132,000 civilians are currently imprisoned by the regime; the opposition says that the number reaches hundreds of thousands.
The network indicated that the regime had released only 193 people since it announced a "pardon" on 30 April.
Over 1,700 Palestinian refugees are believed to be languishing in Syria’s prisons, many of them have spent nearly a decade in prison while scores of others died under torture behind prison bars.
Chair of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic Paulo Pinheiro has asserted that detention in Syria is equivalent to disappearance.
This came during a conference held in the Belgian capital, Brussels, on Friday, on the fate of detainees in the prisons of Bashar Al-Assad's regime.
Pinheiro stressed that the futures of tens of thousands of Syrian civilians are unknown, most of whom have been in the regime's prisons for ten years.
He explained that predictions indicate that most detainees have been executed and buried in mass graves, and others subjected to torture and ill-treatment.
Pinheiro added that being arrested in Syria today is tantamount to disappearing and urged the need to establish an independent mechanism with international authorities to investigate the issue of disappeared civilians.
The UN official stressed that a delay in establishing this mechanism would make it more difficult to uncover the fate of these people.
According to the Syrian Network for Human Rights data, at least 132,000 civilians are currently imprisoned by the regime; the opposition says that the number reaches hundreds of thousands.
The network indicated that the regime had released only 193 people since it announced a "pardon" on 30 April.
Over 1,700 Palestinian refugees are believed to be languishing in Syria’s prisons, many of them have spent nearly a decade in prison while scores of others died under torture behind prison bars.
