Syrian Regime Releases Douma Detainees 2 Weeks After Assad's Visit

Arab World

June 6th, 8:00am

Damascus - Asharq Al-Awsat

Bashar al-Assad and his wife Asma in Douma during the presidential elections on May 26 (AFP)

The Syrian security services released 14 detainees, including two women, from Douma in Eastern Ghouta, under a presidential amnesty. This came two weeks after President Bashar al-Assad visited Douma and cast his vote during the presidential polls. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that regime forces announced via mosques’ loudspeakers, that a group of detainees from Douma city would be released. SOHR sources reported seeing hundreds of residents gathering in the streets of Douma, at the presence of the city’s dignitaries and representatives of the al-Baath Party in eastern Ghouta, in preparation for receiving the released detainees. Meanwhile, activists in southern Syria told SOHR that the regime’s security services have proposed a new settlement for wanted citizens who escaped the mandatory military conscription. The settlement involves members of the factions who were included in the settlement of mid-2018 after the regime and its supporting militias took full control of the Quneitra governorate last May, and 150 people were deported from the town of Umm Batinah in the central Quneitra countryside. The Observatory explained that the new settlement includes citizens wanted for military service and others wanted for security reasons. A central committee formed of several security branches will remove the names of the wanted, provided that the person who submitted again for settlement will receive a security card allowing his transportation.

from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3012106/syrian-regime-releases-douma-detainees-2-weeks-after-assads-visit