Pencilneckal-Assad
Terror of Aleppo ...
issued a decree Sunday granting amnesty and reducing sentences for all crimes committed before Sept. 14, state news agency SANA said.
Similar amnesties have been issued on several occasions most recently last year since Syria's crisis began in March 2011.
According to Sunday's pardon, life-long terms would replace death sentence
...the barbaric practice of sentencing a murderer to be punished for as long as his/her/its victim is dead...
s, and a 20-year-long sentence at hard labour would replace life-long sentences at hard labour, and a 20-year sentence would replace long-life sentences.
Prisoners with incurable diseases including cancer would be freed, it said.
The decree stipulated granting a general amnesty for military deserters who turn themselves in within 3 months for those inside the country, and 6 months for those outside the country.
Also Sunday, Assad received Russia's Special Envoy to Syria Alexander Lavrentiev and its Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin, a day before a trilateral summit in
...Qatar's satrapy in Asia Minor...that will include the leaders of Russia, Turkey and Iran in which Syria will be the main focus of talks.