Syria freed hundreds of political prisoners, a rights activist said, a day after President Bashar al-Assad decreed a general amnesty that the opposition has dismissed as insufficient.
"Under the amnesty, hundreds of people have been released. Fifty of them are from Banias, including the 76-year-old poet Ali Derbak," said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
"But thousands of political prisoners remain in jail and are to be released at any time," he added on Wednesday.
Leaders of the communist Labour Party were unable to benefit from the amnesty, however, as the decree excluded people convicted of joining "an organisation to change the social and economic status of the state," said the activist, reached by telephone.
On Tuesday, Assad issued the order for a general amnesty for Muslim Brotherhood members and political prisoners to be released, following two months of deadly anti-regime protests.
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