10/06/2014 13:57
Syria's Assad announces wide-ranging prisoner amnesty
Syria's President Bashar al-Assad announced an unprecedented prisoner amnesty on Monday, less than a week after his re-election, the most wide-ranging since the beginning of the revolt against him, AFP reported.
Announced five days after Assad was re-elected with nearly 90 percent in a ballot decried as a "farce" by the opposition and the West, the amnesty is the first extended to those accused under a controversial anti-terrorism law.
The July 2012 law has been used to jail tens of thousands of regime opponents, armed and unarmed.
Syrian state television said Monday's amnesty would cover all crimes committed before June 9, and would for the first time extend to those accused under the country's controversial terrorism law.