WASHINGTON, DC (July 29, 2021) — Citizens for a Secure and Safe America (C4SSA) commends the Biden administration’s decision to sanction eight Syrian prisons, five Assad regime officials in the institutions that run those facilities, two militia groups, and two militia leaders for their gross human rights violations and crimes against the Syrian people.
“Our organization is committed to seeing justice for the countless Syrian lives lost and the Syrian families and people who continue to languish at the hands of the Assad government and its allies,” said C4SSA President Dr. Bakr Ghbeis. “We thank the current administration for taking this action and are hopeful that this will lead to stronger action against the violators of human rights in Syria and the region. America’s security is directly linked to seeing a free, democratic and secular Syria, and we will not rest until this becomes a reality.”
Many of the sanctioned prisons were highlighted in pictures provided by Caesar, a Syrian regime defector who worked as an official photographer for the Syrian military and exposed the Assad regime’s egregious treatment of prisoners (many of whom are political) and detainees. Caesar’s courageous efforts to expose these grave realities gave way to the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act of 2019, which seeks to promote accountability for the Assad regime’s human rights abuses.
As a result of the recent sanctions, all property, and interests in property of the designated persons and entities that are in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons are blocked and must be reported to the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). These sanctions also prohibit all transactions by U.S. persons or anyone inside the U.S. (including those who are transiting through the U.S.) from transacting with the blocked persons.
This move is one step in the right direction to holding the Assad government and its supporters accountable.
