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223 prisoners released in Syria

02 June 2012 08:13 (UTC +04:00)

The United Nations said Friday the Syrian government has released 223 prisoners, but stressed that many more must still be freed. UN monitors on Thursday saw 210 detainees released in Damascus and 13 in the southern city of Deraa, said UN deputy spokesman Eduardo del Buey, APA reports quoting AFP.

UN reports and rights groups have spoken of between 10,000 and 30,000 prisoners held in often secret detention centers around the country where President Bashar al-Assad has been battling an uprising for 15 months.

Syrian state television said Thursday that 500 detainees involved in the uprising had been freed. "We cannot at this stage verify other reports of releases," Del Buey told reporters. The UN spokesman said UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan have repeatedly called for the release of all "arbitrarily held" detainees and "clearly many more must be released."

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says tens of thousands of people have been detained and more than 13,000 people killed since March 2011.