On 15 January 2012, SANA, the official Syrian news agency, announced a "general amnesty for crimes committed" during the uprising. The amnesty covered between 15 March 2011 and 15 January 2012. Hours later, Syrian authorities released Haitham al-Maleh, an 80-year-old former judge, one of Assad's most outspoken critics, under an amnesty marking the anniversary of the 1963 coup which brought the Ba'ath Party to power. Twelve Syrian human rights organisations called on the government to scrap the state of emergency which had been in effect for almost 50 years.