August 7, 2010 by sks
On 1 August 2010, the Political Committee of the Kurdish Azadi Party in Syria reported that the administrative authorities in Damascus Central Prison (Adra) continue to ill-treat political prisoners, and that Saadoun Mahmud Shekho has been thrown into solitary confinement.
Major developments have taken place during the past few years in accord with the concepts of democracy and human rights, and there has been a remarkable evolution in the concept of prison itself. It is now a place to evaluate the inmate/prisoner, and to teach new skills so that the prisoner can make a contribution when returning to society, by treating these people as human beings who can make a healthy and productive contribution to the development, prosperity and progress of his country.
Alongside this development, in accord with the concepts of democracy and human rights there was also a major development in the consideration of the political prisoner/inmate, a move from seeing these people as the enemy of the nation to considering them to be opposed to the authority and its institutions.
Despite these changes, the Syrian authorities are still dealing with political inmates/prisoners in the old way. These people are dealt cruel and degrading treatment, and this tends to be much more severe than the treatment of ordinary and dangerous criminals. Many human rights organizations have written special reports on the status of Syrian prisons, in which the suffering, and cruel and degrading treatment is criticised.
The Kurdish Azadi Party has learned from informed sources in Damascus Central Prison (Adra), of the abuse of Saadoun Mahmud Shekho who is a member of the leadership of the Party, and of some other political prisoners who have been oppressed and treated with cruelty, with the intent of humiliating and degrading them. They are personally insulted. In late July the prison administration gave orders to shave the hair of Saadoun Shekho, and he was detained in solitary confinement for a week on the grounds of irregularities and administrative non-compliance with orders of the prison administration.
The Kurdish Azadi Party strongly condemns the ill-treatment of Saadoun Mahmud Shekho, and of other political prisoners in Damascus Central Prison (Adra). They call upon the Syrian authorities, led by the Interior Minister to intervene immediately and urgently to address the many problems that exist in Syrian prisons, and to reform this system as already provided for in the laws and Syrian legislation as well as in law and international covenants and treaties that identify basic guarantees that inmates/prisoners will be respected as citizen. The system should work on the basis that penal institutions are places of rehabilitation that facilitate the reintegration of the inmate/prisoner into society.
The Kurdish Azadi party also call for the opening of the door for humanitarian and human rights organizations and civil society to contribute to the supervision and control of penal institutions (prisons) and to put into practice proposals and recommendations regarding the status of prisons and detention centres, and to work for the positive improvement of the situation, in order to achieve a penal policy based on rehabilitation and integration.
They also call for the retraining of all those involved in the criminal justice departments of prisons, police and security forces through the establishment of specialized training courses, to familiarize personnel with the rights of prisoners according to the prison system and international standards for the treatment of prisoners.
Previous report:
http://supportkurds.org/reports/update-on-kurdish-azadi-party-members-detained-in-syria/#more-2818
