In an unprecedented move, the Human Rights Association of Syria has filed the first ever accusations of torture against Assad’s regime. (Via: Norm)

With Syria under international pressure over its presence in Lebanon, and amid a wave of agitation for democratic reforms across the Middle East, Syrian lawyers are now daring to file the first cases of torture against the state.

The Human Rights Association of Syria (HRAS), a non-governmental organisation operating in Damascus, announced earlier this month that it would launch several cases in a matter of weeks.
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ÄKÅeeping track of political prisoners is next to impossible in Syria, where there are 15 branches of secret police, each with its own jails.

HRAS thinks the total is still some 2,000, mostly men. Their figures are calculated from the testimony of those released.

The organisation has requested that the regime open its security files, so relatives can be reunited, or can grieve for those still missing and move on.

This seems to follow the path where the ball is rolling. Several Syrian dissidents are now flying back to Syria after having been offered amnesty.

A Syrian army officer sentenced to death following a failed coupe attempt against the ruling Baath Party in the 1960s and an artist in exile have returned back home.

Lawyer Anwar al-Bunni, the activist in the field of human right said that officer Jamal Allawan and artist Youssef Abdelki returned back to Damascus on Tuesday.

Al-Bunni added that between 60 to 70 exiled persons are preparing to return back home after the authorities permitted, giving them a passport valid for two years. Al-Bunni, however, demanded the end of the emergency law and the release of all political detainees and abrogating the decision to execute every member of the Muslim Brothers group.

Chairman of the Arab human rights organization, Muhammad Radoun, said in a telephone interview with al-Jazeera TV on Tuesday that the “good” welcome of Allwan might encourage others to return back home but he simultaneously considered this step as “marginal and symbolic” because it does not touch the relation between the authority and the society, especially with the continued acts of detention that took place during past days.

The international pressure is definitely getting to him. Isn’t constant pressure what forced the USSR’s hand over the Helsinki accord? France, now, is again jumping into the fray and demanding the release of all Lebanese prisoners in Syria.

ÄEurope NewsÅ PARIS: France promised Wednesday to follow up the issues of Lebanese prisoners in Syrian jails who are believed to number more than 200 by unofficial counts.

French Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean Baptiste Matier said “we care about the humanitarian case of Lebanese detainees in Syria and we will spare no opportunity to tackle that issue with the Syrian authorities as we have always done.”

Lebanese opposition parties, mainly Christian, have been calling for the release of all Lebanese prisoners in Syria, which denies detaining any.

This just goes to show the coming disintegration of the Baathist regime there. The more they are forced to reform, the more they admit to what they truly are. When the breaking point comes, and it will inevitably, the regime will simply implode. I can’t imagine a bunch of liberals coming to power after that, but I’ll at least speculate that whoever does assume leadership roles, they will be made to ensure a fair electoral system.