Evidence suggests Syrian regime tortured and executed nearly 11,000 detainees

Former prosecutors at high-profile criminal tribunals have said that new evidence has been smuggled out of Syria which reveals that the Damascus regime has implemented the systematic torture and execution of nearly 11,000 detainees since the beginning of the conflict in 2011. According to The Guardian in London, the authors of the report containing the accusation are: Sir Desmond de Silva QC, former chief prosecutor of the special court for Sierra Leone; Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, the former lead prosecutor of ex-Yugoslavian president Slobodan Milosevic; and Professor David Crane, who indicted President Charles Taylor of Liberia at the Sierra Leone court.

The report comes only two months after an announcement by the United Nations Human Rights Commission which said that it possesses strong evidence that the leadership of the Syrian regime, including President Bashar Al-Assad, has been involved in war crimes.

The legal team has examined thousands of images of dead detainees smuggled out of Syria by a photographer who worked with the military police before defecting and fleeing the country. The investigators said that most of the images showed that the victims’ bodies were emaciated and bore the signs of beating or strangulation.

Professor Sir Geoffrey Nice said that the scale and continuity of “murder” provides strong evidence for the government’s involvement in practicing torture and execution. “The Syrian photographer, a dissident of the Syrian military police, has managed to smuggle nearly 26,000 images,” he added. “There were a number of images for each corpse which puts the death toll at 10 or 11,000”. He pointed out that the team’s mission “is not to decide whether the pictures are true or false, but to simple decide whether the evidence is reliable.”

Stewart Hamilton, a forensics expert who has examined the evidence, said that the images prove that the victims suffered a significant degree of starvation before death. “Many victims appeared to have been tied up and strangled,” he said.

The photos are said to have been taken during the period March to August 2013. The report was commissioned by a London-based firm of solicitors acting on behalf of the State of Qatar, which supports Syrian opposition groups.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, said in December that investigations revealed evidence that war crimes have been committed in Syria upon orders from the “highest levels”, including President Assad. That was the first time that the international organisation referred to Assad’s direct involvement. Pillay said that her office possessed a list of other people believed to be involved in the crimes. Syria’s Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal al-Miqdad rejected the High Commissioner’s statements, describing them as “nonsense”.

According to estimates, nearly 100,000 Syrians have been killed in the conflict which started nearly three years ago.

In another report, Amnesty International said in December that execution and torture are practiced against Syrians in secret prisons run by the “Islamic state in Iraq and the Levant” (known by its Arabic acronym Daash) in Syria. The human rights body said that the Al-Qaeda linked group has committed serious human rights violations, including the whipping of children.

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