Syria rebel leader vows to shut down notorious Assad prisons

Syrian insurgent forces have stated they plan to shut the notoriously harsh prisons run by ousted president Bashar al-Assad and hunt these concerned within the killing or torture of detainees.

Rebel chief Ahmed al-Sharaa, also called Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, additionally stated he would dissolve the safety forces of the previous regime, in an announcement seen by the Reuters information company.

Videos displaying hundreds of prisoners being free of Saydnaya jail – known as a “human slaughterhouse” by rights teams – surfaced after the collapse of the Assad authorities on Sunday.

Almost 60,000 individuals have been tortured and killed within the prisons run by Assad, UK-based monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights stated.

Jolani’s Islamist militant group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), led different Syrian insurgent factions in a lightning offensive that toppled the Assad dynasty’s 54-year-rule.

Assad fled to Russia within the early hours of Sunday, the place he and his household have been given asylum, after rebels captured the capital Damascus.

In a separate assertion, Jolani stated pardons for many who took half within the torture or killing of prisoners have been out of the query.

“We will pursue them in Syria, and we ask countries to hand over those who fled so we can achieve justice,” he stated.

Since the autumn of President Bashar al-Assad Syrians have rushed to the regime’s notorious prisons, desperately trying to find their family members. In a 2022 report, the Turkey-based Association of Detainees and The Missing in Saydnaya Prison (ADMSP) stated Saydnaya “effectively became a death camp” after the beginning of the civil struggle in 2011.

Jolani additionally stated he would dissolve the previous Assad regime’s safety forces. It is just not clear how shortly they could possibly be reconstituted by insurgent fighters amid considerations about Israeli strikes on the nation’s army infrastructure.

In the assertion seen by Reuters, Jolani stated his group was working with worldwide organisations to safe potential chemical weapons websites.

When requested concerning the Reuters report, Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh stated the US “welcomed” Jolani’s phrases however stated they wanted to be met with actions.

“Our focus is that these chemical weapons do not fall into the wrong hands”, she added.

This comes after Israel carried out hundreds of strikes across Syria and seized quite a few army belongings.

One of the assaults focused a analysis centre with suspected hyperlinks to chemical weapon manufacturing, in accordance with native media stories.

Israel says it’s appearing to cease weapons falling “into the hands of extremists”.

A chemical weapon is described by the UN’s chemical watchdog, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), as a chemical used to trigger intentional demise or hurt by way of its poisonous properties.

Their use is prohibited below worldwide humanitarian regulation.

Between 2013 to 2018, Human Rights Watch documented no less than 85 chemical weapons assaults in Syria, accusing the ousted authorities of being accountable for most of them.

Assad’s authorities denied ever utilizing chemical weapons.

Syria signed the OPCW’s Chemical Weapons Certificate in 2013, a month after a chemical weapons assault on suburbs of Damascus left greater than 1,400 individuals useless.

It is just not recognized what number of chemical weapons Syria has, but it surely’s believed Assad saved stockpiles and that the declaration he had made was incomplete.

Victims of chemical assaults in Syria have recently spoken to the BBC concerning the devastating impacts they’ve skilled.

Meanwhile, European international ministers are assembly in Berlin on Thursday to carry crucial talks on Syria and Ukraine.

A day later, leaders of the G7 nations may also focus on the newest developments in Syria at a digital assembly, the White House stated.