Syrian president grants amnesty for draft dodgers

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad issued on Wednesday a presidential pardon regarding military service violations, the official SANA news agency reported.

The amnesty covers the crimes of desertion inside Syria and abroad as well as other military service-related crimes committed before Feb.17, said SANA.

It added that it won't cover the fugitives until they turn themselves in to the authorities to settle their situation.

The reports said that the amnesty gives defectors who fled the country two months to hand themselves in, and one month for those still inside Syria.

The president usually issues such amnesties each year, but this year the pardon on the military service violations has a special importance amid reports of high number of draft dodgers. Assad issued a similar amnesty last July.

• The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based watchdog group, said last year that there were 70 thousands draft dodgers who averted to report to service since the beginning of the Syrian crisis in mid-March 2011.

Local community advertisement campaigns have started mushrooming in the capital Damascus, urging the young men to join the military service.
  [Xinhua - globaltimes.cn]
  17/2/16