BEIRUT: Syrian President Bashar Assad announced a general amnesty Tuesday to cut some prisoners’ sentences to mark a national holiday, a move opposition groups rejected as meaningless without the release of thousands of political detainees believed to be held in jail.
The amnesty, which follows several other recent pardons, commutes a death sentence to a life of hard labor and reduces punishments for several other crimes, but excluded “crimes of treason, espionage and terrorism,” state media reported.
Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2013/Apr-17/213986-assad-prisoner-amnesty-deemed-meaningless.ashx#ixzz2QfgVJZGi