HASAKA, West Kurdistan, — Democratic Union Party (PYD) website has published reports from witnesses in Hasaka that there has been a security alert in the prison there after prisoners rebelled and went on strike in al-Hasaka prison.
Many people saw an increase in Syrian security patrols and vehicles in the area, brought in to maintain order. The strike and uprising started during the evening by prisoners who had not been released under the amnesty issued by the President.
The information is based on phone calls from inside the prison, by prisoners who informed their families about the situation. Screams and shouting were also heard from the prison. There is news that the prison may be under the control of the prisoners but the building is surrounded by security forces.
Rewangeh reports that there is a fire in the prison. Fire-fighters and ambulances have been seen in the area, and there is a fear that the prisoners will be massacred.
Gemyakurda.net announced that the lawyer Radwan Seydou, Board member of the Kurdish Committee for Human Rights in Syria – al-Rased, and people who are involved in cases nos.262, 258 and 259 in front of the investigating judge in Qamishli based on articles 288, 767 and 205 announced an indefinite hunger strike as of Tuesday, 21 June 2011, in protest at not being released under the recent amnesty. These people have been arrested between 2008-2010 on charges of belonging to a secret society aimed at cutting part of Syrian territory and annexing it to foreign country, and some of them are charged with terrorist acts.
Some of the detainees were released earlier but the authorities refuse to include them in the amnesty to allow for their release.
Detainees:
Imad Iskan Ahmed
Nidal Iskan Ahmed
Ramzi Hamid Mohammed
Feraz Juma al-Ahmad
Munther Iskan Al-Ahmad
Bakr Ahmed Khalil
Hussein Abdul Khaliq Ali
Khorshid Abdullah Ali
Abdin Hemu Haj Abdo
Juan Yusef Yusef
Mohammad Khalil Haj Abdo
Khalil Rasheed Zilfo
Zaeim Omar Yusef
Adnan Ibrahim Saleh