A human rights group on Wednesday said that tens of thousands of detainees have been killed under torture in Syria since the start of the Syrian revolution in 2011, the majority of whom died while in the custody of the Assad regime
In a report issued on the occasion of the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, the Syrian Network for Human Rights said that 14,727 people were killed under torture in the prisons and detention centers of the Assad regime, including 177 children and 62 women.
According to the report, the Assad regime has detained about about 1.2 million people since 2011, adding that the regime is responsible for 98 percent of the total deaths under torture. Hardline militant groups were responsible for 0.39 percent of the deaths, while other groups, including the PYD militia, were responsible for 0.3 percent.
The Network pointed out that detainees in the prisons of the regime suffer poor hygiene, negligence, severe torture, and lack of medical care.
The report indicated that the detainees in the prisons of the Assad regime are subjected to brutal torture, causing them to suffer various kinds of diseases leading to their death.
The report said that 32 people died of torture while in the custody of the ISIS extremist group, while 24 others died in the prisons of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham militant group. At least 43 people were killed in prisons of the PYD militia.
The UN General Assembly adopted in June 1997 the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture with the aim of the total elimination of torture and the assessment of the performance of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
The Network called on the international community and the UN Security Council to take the necessary measures to hold accountable those responsible for the killing under torture. It demanded the protection of estimated 143,000 detainees still in the Assad regime’s detention centers.
Last week, the head of the Syrian National Commission for the Affairs of Detainees and Missing Persons, Yasser Al-Farhan, said that the Assad regime continues to detain and execute detainees in its prisons. He pointed to new evidence of the Assad regime’s mass execution of those who deny it was detaining, citing the Assad regime’s continued issuance of death notices for detainees who perished in its prisons to the civil registry departments in the Syrian provinces.
Al-Farhan stressed that war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity are taking place against detainees in the prisons of the Assad regime. He pointed out that the Assad regime continues to challenge the reports issued by the International Commission of Inquiry and all international statements about its responsibility for the torture and mass execution of the detainees in its prisons. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)
