Syrians in the Golan demonstrate for release of prisoners in Israeli jails

Hundreds of the Syrian citizens of Majdal Shams in the occupied Golan on Monday held a demonstration in which they called for the release of several Syrian young people from Israeli jails.

The demonstrators raised Syrian flags and pictures of President Hafez al-Assad. They stressed their commitment to returning to their homeland after the end of the Israeli occupation.

In Damascus a crowd of Syrians from the occupied Golan Heights and relatives of the Syrian prisoners detained in the Israeli prisons staged a sit-in at the headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Damascus on Monday in solidarity with the detainees.

In the name of the solidarity committee with the Syrian detainees in Israeli jails a letter was handed over to the ICRC's representative in Damascus. The letter called on the committee's chief, Jacob Clanburger, to intervene immediately to release all prisoners, especially the ill, and to send a medical team to supervise their health condition to improve detention conditions and permit visits and regular medical checkups.

The letter said there are a number of prisoners who are deprived of the simplest human rights and are subject to physical and psychological torture. It also said that sentences against those prisoners are arbitrary and grossly violate the provisions of international legitimacy.

Moreover, the solidarity committee circulated a call, stressing that the question of prisoners has not received sufficient and serious interest from the UN and humanitarian organizations. The committee called upon the Arab league, the UN, Arab and international organizations and all freedom-loving peoples and forces to work fo make Israel halt its violations of human rights.