In addition, Nizar Nayyuf is reportedly suffering from a number of other serious and painful medical complaints. Amnesty International is urging the Syrian authorities to provide Nizar Nayyuf with the medical care he needs in compliance with international human rights instruments to which Syria is a state party, and to allow him to be transferred promptly to a specialised institution or civil hospital where he can receive adequate medical care. In addition, Nizar Nayyuf is reportedly suffering from a number of other serious and painful medical complaints. Amnesty International has long-standing concerns about political prisoners in Syria. Since the implementation of a state of emergency in 1963, critics or opponents of the Syrian government have been arbitrarily arrested and detained without trial or subjected to unfair trial and sentenced to long periods of imprisonment.
Prison conditions are poor and access to health care is believed to be extremely limited.
Torture and ill-treatment is routine, particularly during the interrogation stage of detention. Dozens of deaths in custody have been reported in recent years. The other CDF members still serving prison sentences and adopted by Amnesty International as prisoners of conscience are Muhammad 'Ali Habib, Thabit Murad, 'Afif Muzhir and Bassam al-Shaykh. Their prosecution was apparently related to a CDF leaflet critical of Syrian presidential elections. Nizar Nayyuf spent the first ten months of his sentence at Sadnaya Military Prison in Damascus, after which he was transferred to the desert Tadmur military prison, notorious for its harsh conditions.