Syria allows prison visit

September 6, 2011 at 1:50AM

Syria opened its main prison in Damascus to the International Committee of the Red Cross for the first time since the uprising started in mid-March, amid hopes that the move could begin to reveal the fate of thousands of political detainees.

Human rights activists say Syrian authorities have arrested tens of thousands of people in the past five months of protests against President Bashar Assad. The detainees include women and minors, activists say, and they contend that the majority of political prisoners are held in secret detention centers.

Campaigners say that prisoners are subject to all manner of torture, and many videos posted online in the past several weeks have shown detainees being beaten severely by Syrian troops. Last week, when the attorney general of Hama Province announced his resignation to protest the government's crackdown on demonstrators, he said hundreds had been killed in jails and police stations.

EGYPT TRIAL BACK WITH FISTFIGHTS

During a day of fistfights and raucous courtroom antics, a former senior state security official surprised the prosecution in the trial of Hosni Mubarak, testifying that he knew of no orders to shoot protesters during the revolution that overthrew the Egyptian president last winter.

The comments by Gen. Hussein Said Moussa appeared to contradict his earlier statements about whether Mubarak and then-Interior Minister Habib el-Adly sanctioned using real ammunition in the crackdown that left more than 800 people dead between Jan. 25 and Feb. 11.

Anger concerning the case erupted outside the courthouse as dozens were injured in clashes between Mubarak loyalists and families of those killed. Pro- and anti-Mubarak lawyers punched one another inside the courtroom.

NEWS SERVICES

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