Syria's Assad issues new amnesty

DAMASCUS: President Bashar al-Assad declared a general amnesty on Tuesday as the conflict ravaging Syria showed no signs of abating, with Western and Russian differences proving unbridgeable.

Assad has issued several amnesty decrees since an uprising against his regime erupted more than two years ago, though it is unclear if they have been implemented, and tens of thousands of political prisoners remain missing.

The official SANA news agency said that under the latest amnesty, which was to take effect immediately, "the death penalty will be replaced with a life sentence of hard labour".

The amnesty would give lighter sentences to people convicted of joining the rebellion, but it would not apply to those found guilty of smuggling weapons or drug-related crimes, SANA added, quoting the text of the decree.

"Syrians who joined a terrorist organisation will only have to serve a quarter of their sentences," said the decree.

The decision does not apply to those who avoided conscription" unless they handed themselves over to the authorities within 30 days if they were in Syria, or 90 days if they were abroad, it added.

The decree also annuls death sentences previously handed out to people over 70 years of age.

Human rights groups have frequently accused the Damascus regime of holding people incommunicado and torturing them, among other abuses.

Assad's latest amnesty declaration comes a day before a pro-regime television channel Al-Ikhbariya is to broadcast an interview with the embattled president.

Al-Ikhbariya published on its Facebook page a photograph of Assad seated in an office with two journalists.

In his most recent appearance, Assad told two Turkish media outlets the fall of his regime would produce a "domino effect" that would destabilise the region "for many years".

"The whole world knows that if Syria is partitioned, or if terrorist forces take control of the country, there will be direct contagion of the surrounding countries," he said on April 5.

Assad's regime has been fighting an insurgency that erupted after his forces unleashed a brutal crackdown on peaceful, Arab Spring-inspired democracy protests that broke out in March 2011.

The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and driven more than five million others from their homes, including more than one million refugees.

At least 87 people were killed in violence across the country on Monday alone, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of activists, doctors and lawyers for its reporting.

On Tuesday, the Syrian military carried out air strikes on an area near Base 17 in the northern province of Raqa, whose capital fell into rebel hands in early March, said the Observatory.

Besieged by rebels, the base is one of the regime's few remaining strongholds in the province.

The district of Baramkeh in central Damascus was hit by an explosion caused by a device planted in a car, added the Observatory, which reported at least three wounded.

With no signs of a breakthrough, the international community remains divided over Syria, with several Western and Arab countries supporting the anti-Assad uprising, and Russia, China and Iran backing the regime.