In conjunction with the imminent release of prisoners, the fate of the opposition leader Mohamed Saleh (Abu Ali) remains unclear and the Observatory demands immediate release of him

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights learned from informed and reliable sources from Astana meeting that the negotiators reached an agreement on releasing thousands of detainees from the detention centers of the regime forces as a step on the road to release more than 200 thousand prisoners in the prisons of Bashar Al-Assad regime since the beginning of the Syrian revolution in the mid of March 2011, as per previous agreement between the Russian forces and representatives of the Russian authorities and the factions, as supposed to release Syrian prisoners from several Syrian areas as an implementation of this agreement.

The Syrian Observatory published yesterday a report on the Syrian detainees in the prisons of the regime forces and the other operating groups in Syria. The SOHR called to release all detainees and reveal the fate of thousands of missing people. The SOHR was able document 14733 civilian casualties including 119 children under the age of eighteen and 58 woman over the age of eighteen, who have died since the start of the Syrian revolution in mid-March 2011 until the 30th October 2017, out of at least 60000 detainees who were killed inside these branches and Sednaya Prison in more than 6 and half years, either as a result of direct physical torture or deprivation of food and medicine.

In addition to the tens of thousands of detainees in the regime forces prisons and detention centers and the death of thousands of them since the start of the Syrian revolution; there are thousands of missing persons and detainees at the prisons of the rebel and Islamic factions, Hayyaat Tahrir Al-Sham and the “Islamic State” organization, where the Syrian Observatory has been able to document the presence of more than 5200 abductees of civilians and fighters in the prisons of the “Islamic State” organization, in addition to the presence of more than 4700 prisoners and messing members of the regime forces and militiamen loyal to them, and more than 2000 abductees by the rebel and Islamic factions, and Hayyaat Tahrir Al-Sham (Nusra Front formerly), and they were accused of being loyal to the regime. The fate of many of them is unknown, in terms of where they are and whether they are alive or not.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights welcomes these steps, which would end the suffering of hundreds of thousands of prisoners and their families, and ensure not returning them to the prisons by the regime authorities and its intelligence apparatus. The SOHR reiterate its demands to release all political detainees by every parties, and reiterates its demands to release the opposition leaders Mohamed Saleh, who was arrested by the regime forces on the 18ths of October.

The Syrian Observatory published days ago that the previous arrests of Mohammad Saleh – which the first time was during the rule of the former regime President Hafez al-Assad, and lasted for 13 years – didn’t satisfy the security regime authorities, so the arrested him again about 7 months after releasing him, in which the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored that the regime authorities re-arrested the prominent Syrian opposition ((Mohammad Saleh Abu Ali)), after a checkpoint of the security regime forces stopped him, at Al-Madina Al-Jame’yya in Homs city in the 18th of October 2017, and he was taken to one of the regime’s Intelligence branches in the city, amid fears for the opposition leader’s life of the repeated detention, as a result of the drop of his health condition due to the previous arrests.

The opposition leader in the peaceful Syrian democratic movement Abu Ali saleh, had been arrested in the last third of October 2015, by orders of Jamil Hassan the head of Air Force Intelligence Directorate in Syria, on charge of “communication with the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and transferring funds of the terrorists to an activist of the Syrian Observatory in Homs city”, thus, He was transferred to the air Force intelligence Directorate on the orders of Jamil al-Hassan, and after about two months of investigations, the administration sent him to the terrorism court on 30th of December 2015, and he was put in Damascus central prison (Adra prison), but the Syrian Observatory confirmed earlier that a judge in the terrorism court in Damascus, referred Abu Ali saleh, to the criminal court on charges of “funding terrorism in Syria” because back in 2015 he gave 100 euros to a poor family in the besieged neighborhood of al-Wa’er by the regime forces and militiamen loyal to them in the city of Homs.

It is noteworthy that opposition in the civil peace and the democratic movement Mohammad Saleh who is about 60 years old, he is a former political prisoner, was arrested in the era of Hafez al-Assad -the father of Bashar al-Assad- and remained in prison from 1987 and until 2000, on charges of belonging to the Communist Work Party, he was also imprisoned by the branch of Air Force Intelligence in the first year of the Syrian revolution in the era of Bashar al-Assad, because of his participation in the peaceful democratic movement, where the arrests caused him several illnesses and his recent arrest by regime authorities has increased the threat for his life, so we in the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights we demand the Syrian regime authorities to release immediately the leader in the peaceful democratic movement ((Mohammad Saleh Abu Ali)), the friend of the opposition leader and the son of Qardaha city, doctor Abd al-Aziz Al-Khir – who was attacked by the Shabiha of the opposition in Cairo in 2011, and was arrested by the Shabiha of the regime in 2012 – and we in the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights hold the regime the full responsibility for his life, we also demand the international authorities and human rights organizations to pressure the Syrian regime to release the leader of the Alawite community who lives in Homs city immediately, and we in the Syrian Observatory for human rights demand again Mr. Staffan de Mistura the UN envoy to Syria and called him for immediate action to release him and all prisoners of conscience in regime’s prisons and detentions, who are estimated about 200 thousand prisoners.