In the morning of 26 Nov, 2016, a patrol from the Military Police came to the Central Prison of Suwaida and requested the handover of two detainees to be transferred to an unknown destination to be executed. The names of those detainees are:
1. Ahmad Walid Barakat, his mother’s name: Widad from Bab Dreib – Homs. Born in 1994, registry No. 367. He was detained and tortured by intelligence branch 48 and Palestine branch. He was forced to sign on false confessions extracted under severe torture and coercion, and then he was transferred to Seydnaya prison.
2. Saddam Mousa al-Mareig, his mother’s name: Shiekha. He is from Daraa. He was arrested at the Town Center checkpoint in Damascus on 16 May, 2016. He was tortured in the District Branch 227 and he was forced to sign on false confessions extracted under severe torture and coercion, then he was transferred to Seydnaya prison.
The two abovementioned detainees are put under custody on behalf of the field court and they were transferred from Seydnaya prison to Suwaida Central Prison about six months ago and now they have been summoned by the Military Police. There is confirmed information that this summon is for implementing the death sentence.
It is noteworthy that the field court is unconstitutional and illegal as it violates the Syrian constitution and Syrian laws, not to mention the international legal and judicial principles. The rulings of the field court, therefore, are void and null and they are merely rulings of a de facto authority, as legal experts say.
Inmates in Suwaida Prison have threatened to conduct a rebellion in the prison if their two colleagues are transferred. On the other hand, prison officers and the chief of police threatened to storm the prison by force and transfer the two detainees to be executed. In this context, an additional armed force was brought to Suwaida prison, yet detainees are still refusing to hand over their colleagues in order to prevent the execution of the death sentence issued by the field court.
In light of this ongoing tragedy and the appeals of the detainees’ families and friends, taking into consideration that this is one example of the hundreds of other similar execution cases the Syrian regime has been carrying out against detainees without the knowledge of anyone, we, members of Syrian human rights organizations and institutions, civil society organizations, friends and families of detainees appeal to the United Nations, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, The United Nations Human Rights Council, UN special envoy to Syria H.E. Staffan De Mistura, Ms. Eva Svoboda the advisor of detainees affairs in Syria, the Syria Humanitarian Taskforce in Geneva and the International Committee of the Red Cross to provide international protection to detainees and stop the death sentences against the above mentioned detainees as well as all death sentences issued against detainees in Syria, secure the lives of detainees and exert extra efforts for their release in order to enhance the trust building measures, in accordance with international resolutions, specifically UNSC Resolution 2254.
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Signatories:
1. Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression
2. The Working Group for Syrian Detainees
3. Syria Center for Legal Studies and Researches
4. Club Franco-Syrien
5. Kesh Malek organization
6. Local Coordination Committees of Syrıa
7. Citizenship Current
8. Justice for Detainees in Syria
9. The free Syrian lawyers’ aggregation
10. Syrian Commission for Detainees
11. Free Syrian Lawyers Association
12. Free lawyers Homs
13. Zeal human rights organization
14. The Syrian Commission for Releasing Detainees
15. Kawakbi Center for Human Rights
16. Syrian Network for Human Rights
17. Syrians for Truth and Justice
18. Democratic Republic Center
19. The Syrian National Organization
20. Arab organization for human Rights
21. The Syrian Committee For Detainees
22. Human Rights Organization in Syria-MAF
23. Free Syrian Lawyers Association FSLA
24. Human rights Guardians
25. Arab Organization for Human Rights
26. Syrian activists for Observation organization
27. Syrian Organization for freedom and peace
28. Dengêgirtiyan
29. Justice center and the Syrian human rights
30. Association Franco-algérienne pour les droits et libertés à Paris
31. Syrian activists for Observation organization
32. Syrian Organization for freedom and peace
33. Aleppo Liberal lawyers to build the state of law
34. Justice organization for human rights and legal aid
35. Syrian human rights network
36. National Bloc in Syria
37. Massar Center
38. Syrian Institution For Documenting And Publishing