More Syrian political prisoners to be released

The Jordanian weekly al-Bilad said in its most recent issue that the number of political prisoners in Syria who will be released from Syrian prisons is expected to reach 325 after some 225 were recently freed.

The release process, which came at the directive of President Hafez al-Assad three weeks earlier, started with a group of prisoners, including some 30 political prisoners whose release was called for by international human rights organizations, including the secretary-general of the Syrian Communist Party's political bureau, Riad al-Turk, who had been in jail for 17 years, lawyer Akhtham Nueisah who was detained in 1991, and others.