Syrian rebel forces have said they plan to close notoriously harsh prisons run by ousted President Bashar al-Assad and capture those involved in killing or torturing prisoners.
According to foreign media, rebel leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, also known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, also said he would disband the previous regime's security forces, in a statement seen by Reuters news agency.
Videos showing thousands of prisoners being released from Saydnaya prison, described as a "human slaughterhouse" by rights groups, emerged after the fall of Assad's government on Sunday.
Almost 60,000 people were tortured and killed in prisons run by Assad, the UK-based monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Jolan's Islamist militant group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), led other Syrian rebel factions in a lightning offensive that toppled the Assad dynasty's 54-year rule.
Assad fled to Russia in the early hours of Sunday, where he and his family have been granted asylum after rebels seized the capital, Damascus.
In a separate statement, Jolani said there could be no talk of forgiveness for those who participated in torturing or killing prisoners.
"We will pursue them in Syria and ask countries to hand over those who fled so that we can achieve justice," he said, reports A2 CNN.
Since the fall of President Bashar al-Assad, Syrians have rushed to the regime's notorious prisons, desperately searching for their loved ones. In a 2022 report, the Turkey-based Association of Detainees and Disappeared in Saydnaya Prison (ADMSP) said Saydnaya "effectively became a death camp" after the civil war began in 2011.
Jolani also said he would disband the former Assad regime's security forces. It is not clear how quickly they can be reconstituted by rebel fighters amid concerns about Israeli attacks on the country's military infrastructure.
(A2 Televizion)
A2 CNN Livestream
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