The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) said that it had documented the death of 34 detainees under torture in the prisons of the Assad regime in September 2017. The victims included a university student and two women.
In a report released on Tuesday, the Network said that 195 people had died under torture in Syria since the beginning of 2017, including 33 who died in the Assad regime’s custody in July alone and one in the prisons of Hay’at Tahrir Alsham militant group.
According to SNHR’s report, 16 victims were recorded in Dara’a province, seven in Damascus and its suburbs, four in Aleppo, two in each of Idlib and Hama, and one in each of Lattakia, Homs and Raqqa.
Rights groups have documented the death of tens of thousands of detainees under torture in the prisons of the Assad regime since March 2011. Detainees are subjected to the most brutal forms of systematic torture. Human rights organizations have repeatedly slammed the silence of the international community and its failure to hold the Assad regime accountable for the crimes and violations of human rights in Syria.
The Network stressed that “the death of a large number of victims under torture on a monthly basis in the prisons of the Assad regime clearly shows that it is a systematic policy that was adopted by head of the Assad regime and its most senior officials.” The Network stressed that these crimes constitute a war crime.
Human Rights Watch on Tuesday said that efforts to bring those responsible for atrocities in Syria before European courts are starting to bear fruit, notably in Swedish and German courts.
Sweden and Germany are the first two countries that have prosecuted and convicted people for these crimes, HRW said. It pointed out that
The watchdog group issued a 66-page report outlining efforts in Sweden and Germany to investigate and prosecute people implicated in war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide in Syria. It documented the difficulties German and Swedish investigators and prosecutors face in taking up these types of cases. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)
