The US Treasury Department announced fresh sanctions on Wednesday a slew of Syrian entities, including eight Syrian regime prisons and 5 senior officials in charge of the facilities.
The Treasury Department said the prisons “have been sites of human rights abuses against political prisoners and other detainees.”
First time Biden administration introduces new sanctions on #Syria - sanctioned Syrian prisons, Assad regime officials and militia leaders
— Zeina Khodr (@ZeinakhodrAljaz) July 28, 2021
“The Assad regime has waged a ruthless war against the Syrian people, imprisoning hundreds of thousands of Syrians calling for reform and change, of whom at least 14,000 have been tortured to death,” the department said in a statement.
“More than 130,000 people reportedly remain missing or arbitrarily detained to this day — the vast majority of whom are either presumed dead or are detained without communication with family or legal representation,” it added.
Five of the eight individuals added to the sanctions list were Syrian intelligence officials accused by the US Treasury of running prisons where human rights abuses take placehttps://t.co/dXfKIs9VyL
— The New Arab (@The_NewArab) July 29, 2021
Among the entities being sanctioned are the Saydnaya Military Prison, Syrian Military Intelligence head Kifah Moulhem, and Syrian Military Intelligence Branch 290 Commander Wafiq Nasser.
The Treasury Department also announced the designations of Ahrar al-Sharqiya, an armed group that operates in northern Syria with “a record of human rights abuse,” as well as its leader, Ahmad Ihsan Fayyad al-Hayes.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
