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Derechos | Equipo Nizkor
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| Information | | |
Derechos | Equipo Nizkor
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16Apr13
Syrian presidential pardon to release some 7,000 prisoners
As many as 7,000 Syrian prisoners will be released under the general amnesty granted by the president, Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi said Tuesday in a cabinet session.
Earlier Tuesday, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad issued a general pardon covering crimes committed before April 16 in remembrance of the Syrian Independent Day that falls on Wednesday.
The amnesty reduces death penalty to life imprisonment with hard labor, and covers prisoners with incurable diseases and elders over 70, state media said.
It also includes lesser offenses such as theft, forgery, military desertion and other white-collar crimes.
It does not, however, cover political prisoners or those convicted of drug and weapon trafficking.
The Syrian government called on fugitive criminals to turn themselves in within 30 days after the issuance of the pardon so as to be counted in.
Assad has granted a set of amnesties that pardoned wanted people who did not committed homicide during the prolonged crisis.
The UN said that more than 70,000 people have been killed in Syria's bloody crisis and the Syrian opposition claims that tens of thousands are locked up in the government's prisons.
[Source: Xinhua, Damascus, 16Apr13]
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