BICOM

Syrian President Bashar Assad yesterday issued a decree granting amnesty to all political prisoners, and to members of the Muslim Brotherhood. Membership of the Brotherhood is illegal in Syria, and is punishable by death according to Syrian law. The amnesty was worded to include ‘all crimes committed prior to May 31, 2011’. Assad’s latest move comes as protests against his rule continue in Syria, despite the heavy crackdown by the Syrian armed forces in recent weeks. Troops and tanks were engaged against protestors again in the town of Rastan in central Syria yesterday.

The amnesty is evidently intended to give protestors an incentive to abandon their activities, in the knowledge that they will not be prosecuted for having been involved in opposition. The move is unlikely to have an effect, however. Even as the announcement was made, 300 members of the Syrian opposition were meeting in Antalya, Turkey, in an attempt to develop a united strategy. The gathering issued a statement in response to the proposed amnesty, saying it was ‘insufficient’ and ‘much too late’. Oytun Orhan, A Turkish expert on Syria, said that the holding of the Antalya conference in Turkey constituted a Turkish message to the Assad regime to begin the process of reform.