Red Cross pressing for further access to prisoners in Syrian jails

The International Committee of the Red Cross will press Syria for swift access to all detainees including thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators believed to be in informal lockups, its chief said yesterday as arrests continued across the country.

Jakob Kellenberger, speaking a day after the ICRC announced Syria opened its prisons for the first time, said ICRC staff were paying further visits to Damascus central prison, which has 6,000 inmates, both criminal and political.

“We have enough information to know that there are [other] places we have to see as early as possible,” Mr Kellenberger told a news conference in Geneva upon his return from Syria where he held talks with president Bashar al-Assad.

For now, Syria has granted access to prisons under the authority of the interior ministry, according to the ICRC.

Prison visits were an “ambitious and delicate exercise” for any country, Mr Kellenberger said, noting that neither Egypt nor Bahrain had granted them despite repeated ICRC requests.