Washington:
The United States on Wednesday mentioned it imposed sanctions on eight prisons run by Syria’s intelligence apparatus, some of which featured in graphic pictures by a former Syrian military photographer codenamed “Caesar” that show brutal torture.
The Treasury Department also slapped sanctions on 5 Syrian officials who directed the prisons, Syrian armed rebel group Ahrar al-Sharqiya and two of its leaders to attempt to hold to account these accountable for human rights violations in the country’s decade-extended civil war.
“Many of the prisons designated today were highlighted in the pictures provided by Caesar, a Syrian regime defector who worked as an official photographer for the Syrian military and exposed the regime’s ruthless and cruel treatment of detainees,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken mentioned in a statement.
“Today’s action … seeks to promote accountability for the Assad regime’s abuses,” he added, referring to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose brutal crackdown against largely peaceful protests in early 2011 unleashed the country’s civil war.
Thousands of photographs taken by “Caesar” – some displaying eye gougings, strangulation and extended-term starvation – smuggled out of Syria involving 2011 and mid-2013.
In a statement announcing the sanctions, the Treasury mentioned the prisons “have been sites of human rights abuses against political prisoners and other detainees.”
It also accused Ahrar al-Sharqiya of numerous crimes against civilians, in particular Syrian Kurds, like unlawful killings, “abductions, torture, and seizures of private property.”
As a outcome of the action, all assets of the targets beneath U.S. jurisdiction are blocked and U.S. persons are frequently barred from dealing with them.
In a separate statement, the Treasury mentioned it had imposed sanctions on one Turkey-based al Qaeda monetary facilitator for materially assisting the militant group and one Syria-based terrorist fundraiser and recruiter for giving material help to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), yet another militant group.
Beyond blocking their assets and barring U.S. persons from dealing with them, these sanctions threaten non-U.S. persons with losing access to the U.S. market place if they deal with the two.
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