Rights group: Wounded and dead in Syria prison riot (2nd Lead)

Jul 5, 2008, 11:34 GMT

Damascus - A number of inmates were killed and wounded when prison authorities put down a riot staged by Islamist political prisoners in Sidnaya prison north of Damascus over poor conditions, Syrian human rights groups said.

'It is difficult to known how many people have been wounded and killed as the authorities have confiscated all cell phones inside the prison,' Ammar al-Qurbi, the president of the National Organization for Human Rights in Syria (NOHR) told the Dubai-based al-Arabiya news channel.

The head of the Syria-based group dismissed media reports putting the number of dead at 25, saying it was is too high and difficult to confirm.

Earlier, the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights said on its website that Islamist prisoners staged a protest on Saturday morning in Sidnaya jail, prompting military police to open fire.

The London-based group cited an inmate as saying scores of prisoners had been killed and others had fled to a roof of the jail.

Families of inmates were appealing to President Bashar al-Assad through the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights to intervene immediately, the group said.

Al-Qurbi said the prison in the mountainous village of Sidnaya has been the scene of unrest for nearly two months.

Inmates staged a riot after an arson erupted, al-Qurbi said, adding that the prison was closed for a week and a number of wounded inmates had been taken to a nearby hospital.

Another riot erupted in Adra prison, Syria's biggest jail, shortly after the Sidnaya unrest, he said.

Al-Qurbi ruled out that the unrest on Saturday was politically motivated, saying poor conditions in the prison were the likely cause.

Mistreatment and insufficient food and beds in prisons are common complaints that the authorities have to address by responding to inmates' demands rather than opening fire, al-Qurbi said.

Syrian human rights groups complain that prisons in the Arab country are run by the Ministry of Interior rather than the Justice Ministry. A number of prisons are administered by the Syrian military, a report by the NOHR said.