Yasser Al-Atrash, Baladi News
Syrian regime released the 48 year old detainee Barjas Kasim Owaidat who is originally from "Majdal Shams" in the Syrian occupied Golan Heights after spending 12 years in prison on a charge of spying for Israel, according to a member of the Israel Knesset.
The release comes at a time when the Syrian forces stormed the central prison of Hama, and caused dozens of casualties among prisoners by using poisonous gas bombs against them. And also at a time when Assad's security forces continue to detain hundreds of thousands of Syrians due to the uprising against the Assad regime, and continues to negotiate their fate with the international community, using them as a political pressure card to achieve more gains in the negotiations.
It should be noted that the released spy spent only 12 years of his imprisonment period which was supposed to last for 20 years at least as he was sentenced to life imprisonment on a charge of spying for Israel in 2004.
Some followers linked the decision of release to the constant Russian-Israeli coordination concerning Syria as Russia which is nowadays controlling every detail of the Syrian file expressed many times maintaining the Israeli interests in Syria and that the coordination between the two governments is in full swing. It's noteworthy here that Russia did never object targeting sites in Syria by the Israelis in more than one occasion. Therefore, the decision of release could have been issued by Moscow.
In the same context, "Maariv" Israeli newspaper published on its website on Tuesday that the Syrian regime released "Owaidat" on Monday in "Al-Suwayda" governorate south of Syria, noting that he "will return to Israel through Jordan." "Owaidat" disappeared in Damascus in 2004 where he arrived to study dentistry in 2002", the newspaper added.