POSSIBLE POLITICAL DETENTION OF 23 RELEASED

C O N F I D E N T I A L DAMASCUS 000445 SIPDIS PARIS FOR WALLER LONDON FOR TSOU DEPARTMENT FOR NEA/ELA, DRL/BARGHOUT NSA FOR SHAPIRO/MCDERMOTT E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/28/2019 TAGS: PREL PHUM LE SY SUBJECT: POSSIBLE POLITICAL DETENTION OF 23 RELEASED LEBANESE CRIMINALS Classified By: CDA Maura Connelly for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) Summary: Syria reportedly released 23 Lebanese prisoners convicted of criminal offenses, some of whom had received special presidential amnesty and the rest after finishing their prison sentences. We have been unable to verify the reports, but if true, they could represent an important development in Syrian-Lebanese relations. End Summary. ¶2. (U) Ammar Qurrabi, president of the National Organization for Human Rights in Syria (NOHRS),told AFP on June 23 that 23 Lebanese prisoners had been released from Syrian jails after serving convictions for drug trafficking and smuggling. He said 16 criminals were released by special amnesty, while seven had completed their jail terms. This group represented a small portion of what many human rights activists believed to be among the hundreds of Lebanese currently detained in Syrian jails. The human rights organization Support of Lebanese in Detention and Exile (SOLIDE) reported that around 100 Lebanese are held in Syrian prisoners, while Human Rights Watch (HRW) and others put that number much higher. ¶3. (C) Qurrabi told the Embassy on June 24 he did not know why 16 of the prisoners were given special presidential amnesty. Echoing the official Syrian stance, he denied firmly they were political prisoners, insisting several times that this "is not a human rights issue." According to HRW, those reportedly released were on a list of 107 names the Syrians sent to the Lebanese several months ago. This list was never made public. Since then, according to Qurrabi, three groups of prisoners have been released -- 16 in the first, 20 in the second, and 23 in the third and most recent. ¶4. (C) Qurrabi maintained the 23 released prisoners were not required to return to Lebanon, and said many remained in Syria. (Note: According to an HRW contact, a number of the released prisoners reportedly had returned to Lebanon, but none through normal border control. End note.) ¶5. (C) Comment: The release of common criminals in Syria is generally unremarkable, but the release of Lebanese prisoners may represent a potentially major development in Syrian-Lebanese relations. We may never know the identities of the detainees, however. We note the inconsistency between Qurrabi's contention that the releases "are not a human rights issue" and the fact that he, a well-known human rights activist, was a major source in the regional press. Many in the diplomatic community suspect Qurrabi of having suspiciously close ties to the SARG security services. We defer to Embassy Beirut on whether there is solid Lebanese information to corroborate these reports. CONNELLY