Thousands Hanged In Total Secrecy In Syria, Says Amnesty

Amnesty International revealed that up to 13,000 people have been executed in secret - most of them are civilian opposition supporters, at a prison in Syria. The international human rights organization says that mass hangings took place on weekly basis between September 2011 and December 2015 at Saydnaya prison.

Syrian government however denied any mistreating or killing detainees despite the allegation by Amnesty who said the executions were authorized by the local government. According to UN human rights experts, based on the witness accounts and documentary evidence, it is suggested that tens of thousands of people being detained and deaths in a massive scale were occurring in custody.

84 people including former guards, officials and detainees were interviewed by Amnesty at Saydnaya prison to complete the reports. Based on the findings, groups of between 20 and 50 people were executed in totally secrecy, in every week (mostly twice a week) at the said prison which is located north of Damascus.

According to the report, prior to their execution, detainees were brought before a military field court at Qaboun district for their trials which only last between one or three minutes. Based on the reports provided to BBC, detainees would be asked if they had committed crimes as per conviction, but whether the answer is yes or no, they would still be convicted - as revealed by a former military court judge who was interviewed by Amnesty.

He also stated that the court has no relation with the rule of law. The report also said that detainees were told on the day of hangings that they will be transferred to a civilian prison, before taken to the basement cell and beaten up for two to three hours. In the midnight, they were blindfolded and taken to a room in the basement and were told that they have been sentenced to death - minutes before nooses were placed around their necks.   

After that, the bodies then loaded onto lorries and transferred to Tishreen hospital in Damascus for registration prior to the mass burial at a huge grave on the military land. On the basis of evidence of the testimony of its witnesses, Amnesty estimates that between 5,000 and 13,000 people were executed at Saydnaya over five years.

The international human rights organization also said that there is no reason to believe that the mass killings have stopped - as they do not have any evidence of the executions after December 2015, and strongly suggested that thousands more were likely have perished. These practices were condemned by Amnesty as crimes against humanity.

Amnesty also said that the death sentences have to be approved by the grand mufti who are deputized to act on behalf of Syria President Bashar al-Assad. Attempts to contact the Syrian authorities were made but receive no response so far.

Last August, Amnesty reported that an estimated 17,723 people had died in custody as a result of torture and the deprivation of food, water and medical care between March 2011 - when the uprising against President Assad began - and December 2015. That figure did not include those allegedly hanged at Saydnaya.

Tags

Execution, human rights, Syria, Amnesty International

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