Female Prisoners of Conscience in Adra Prison Declare a Hunger Strike

Media Statement

Syrian Coalition

Istanbul, Turkey

July 01, 2013

Female political prisoners in the Damascus Central Prison (Adra), announced on Sunday that they will be participating in a hunger strike for an indefinite length of time. They declared that the hunger strike would continue until their situation is brought forward and their cases tried in court.

Currently, hundreds of Syrian female political prisoners in Adra Prison, as well as in other prisons, live in terrible and inhumane conditions. Many of them are elderly, sick, or pregnant and are in dire need of proper health care, which is often denied. Other political prisoners are mothers, students, or civil servants who have been denied basic legal rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The Assad regime is notorious for its ill treatment of political prisoners, and is well known for using extreme forms of torture to punish prisoners and terrorize the people.

News leaks from inside Adra prison have stated that the Assad regime plans to respond cruelly and viciously to these political prisoners’ attempt to protest the inhumane conditions of their detention.

The Syrian Coalition urges international humanitarian organizations, specifically the United Nations Human Rights Council to put pressure on Assad to release all political prisoners.

We ask for Mercy for our martyrs, health for our wounded, and freedom for our detainees.

Long live Syria and its people, free and with honor.