Northern Syria -

The number of Syrian detainees released from the prisons of the Syrian regime to date has not exceeded 240, according to Syrian opposition human rights sources, since the regime announced a general amnesty for the perpetrators of "terrorist crimes" on April 30, while hundreds of thousands are awaiting Of the Syrians out of their missing relatives in prisons and secret detention centers.

The alleged amnesty revived the hopes of the Syrians of a soon meeting with their loved ones and relatives, after it had become almost forgotten in their accounts, and this latest belief deepened what was revealed about the massacres committed by elements of the Syrian regime in the Damascus Tadamon neighborhood in 2013.

The alleged amnesty boosted Syrians' hopes of a soon meeting with their loved ones and relatives (French)

Arrest threats

With the entry of the fifth day for the start of the execution and release of the detainees, the number of their relatives gathered at the bottom of the President Bridge in the center of the Syrian capital, Damascus, decreased, after the scene became surprising and astonishing, which prompted the regime authorities to intervene by warning and threatening at other times.

The father of a detainee from the Damascus countryside (who refused to reveal his name) said that members of the regime police demanded the people to leave and not to come to the President’s Bridge Square, in implementation of the instructions of the Ministry of Interior in the regime’s government.

Syrian citizens in the Jisr Al-Raees area in central Damascus (French)

The father added, in an interview with Al-Jazeera Net, that the elements carrying weapons and batons threatened some of the assembled families with arrest and imprisonment, in case they violated the order and come again to the place and wait, indicating that they told the crowd that there was no specific place to release the detainees.

The father pointed out that his 30-year-old son was arrested in the countryside of Damascus in mid-2014 at one of the Syrian regime’s military checkpoints, and since that day nothing has been known about him and he has not received any news or small information revealing his fate.

As the photos of social networking sites showed, the grieving father showed a small picture of his son in front of a newly released detainee, but the latter was unable to identify him or provide any evidence, according to the father.

Families of detainees display pictures of their relatives to a newly released detainee in order to reveal their fate (communication sites)

memory loss

The conditions of the released detainees and their photos, which were circulated on the communication sites and the personal accounts of Syrian activists, tell sad stories about the years they spent in the secret prisons of the Syrian regime, and their exhausted faces reveal the ongoing tragedy.

Abu Omar al-Homsi (pseudonym) tells the story of his detained cousin, who was released two days before the notorious Sednaya prison, after spending more than 10 years, which was enough for him to lose his memory and forget everything that happened to him before the date of arrest except for his wife.

Al-Homsi said that his cousin was arrested in the countryside of Homs at a military checkpoint for the regime, stressing that he was not affiliated with any military authority or any revolutionary movement, and suggested his arrest for sectarian reasons, according to his description.

Al-Homsi added - in an interview with Al-Jazeera Net - that his cousin could not get to know his family and relatives, but he showed affection and intimacy - in his features - when you talk to him, and he only remembered his wife, adding that the great shock when he discovered that his wife married another person and immigrated to Europe After receiving information confirming his death in prison.

Al-Homsi pointed out that the disclosure of his relative’s body showed that he had deformities in sensitive areas of his body, as a result of the torture he was subjected to in prison, in addition to various skin diseases, emaciation in the body and weak eyesight.

Some of the detainees went out, losing their memory, and others did not find someone waiting for them (communication sites)

Absenteeism in prisons

According to Syrian human rights reports, the Syrian regime has adopted torture as a behavior with all detainees since the beginning of the popular movement in Syria in the spring of 2011, and has deliberately kept thousands of Syrians in prisons.

The Syrian Network for Human Rights estimates the number of Syrian detainees at about 149,862 people who are still detained since 2011, most of them at the hands of the Syrian regime. The regime arrests about 87.73% of the total detainees, i.e. about 131,469 people, including 3,621 children and 8,037 women.

The network says, in a report, that documenting arrests is a "complicated and arduous" process, due to the practices of the Syrian regime, pointing out that arrests carried out by the Syrian regime and its militias are closer to kidnappings, as they are carried out without a judicial warrant.