Syrian President Bashar Assad announced an unprecedented prisoner amnesty Monday, less than a week after his re-election, the most wide-ranging since the revolt against him began.

Announced five days after Assad was returned to office with nearly 90 percent of the votes in a ballot decried as a "farce" by the opposition and the West, the amnesty is the first extended to those accused under a controversial anti-terrorism law.

The July 2012 law has been used to jail tens of thousands of regime opponents, armed and unarmed.