The former Syrian Vice President Abdel Halim Khaddam, a dissident, stated that the events that took place in Saydnaya prison in Syria in 2008, which resulted in the death of a number of prisoners, are a crime against humanity. He called on Arab and international public opinion to condemn the incident. In a statement yesterday, Tuesday, on the one-year anniversary of the events in Saydnaya prison, Khaddam said, “The security services and a unit of the armed forces invaded the prison using medium weapons, bombs, and missiles against unarmed prisoners because they demanded improvement of their conditions in prison and dealt with them harshly, contrary to the law of human rights.” He pointed out that the Syrian authorities have not disclosed the number and names of the prisoners killed and have prevented families from visiting the prison to check on their children to avoid revealing the truth of what happened. Khaddam added, “This fateful and bloody massacre constitutes a crime against humanity in addition to the crimes committed by the security system against Syrian citizens, most notably crimes of suppression of freedoms and violation of fundamental human rights.” He called on Arab and international public opinion to “take decisive positions against a regime that violates all basic rights of citizens” and stressed that “the salvation of Syria can only be achieved by building a democratic civil state.”
