Damascus - A number of inmates were killed and wounded when
prison authorities put down a riot staged by Islamist political
prisoners in Sidnaya prison north of Damascus over poor conditions,
Syrian human rights groups said.
'It is difficult to known how many people have been wounded and
killed as the authorities have confiscated all cell phones inside the
prison,' Ammar al-Qurbi, the president of the National Organization
for Human Rights in Syria (NOHR) told the Dubai-based al-Arabiya news
channel.
The head of the Syria-based group dismissed media reports putting
the number of dead at 25, saying it was is too high and difficult to
confirm.
Earlier, the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights said on its
website that Islamist prisoners staged a protest on Saturday morning
in Sidnaya jail, prompting military police to open fire.
The London-based group cited an inmate as saying scores of
prisoners had been killed and others had fled to a roof of the jail.
Families of inmates were appealing to President Bashar al-Assad
through the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights to intervene
immediately, the group said.
Al-Qurbi said the prison in the mountainous village of Sidnaya has
been the scene of unrest for nearly two months.
Inmates staged a riot after an arson erupted, al-Qurbi said,
adding that the prison was closed for a week and a number of wounded
inmates had been taken to a nearby hospital.
Another riot erupted in Adra prison, Syria's biggest jail, shortly
after the Sidnaya unrest, he said.
Al-Qurbi ruled out that the unrest on Saturday was politically
motivated, saying poor conditions in the prison were the likely
cause.
Mistreatment and insufficient food and beds in prisons are common
complaints that the authorities have to address by responding to
inmates' demands rather than opening fire, al-Qurbi said.
Syrian human rights groups complain that prisons in the Arab
country are run by the Ministry of Interior rather than the Justice
Ministry. A number of prisons are administered by the Syrian
military, a report by the NOHR said.
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