Human rights group: 2,000 dead in Assad's prisons in 2014

Since the start of the year, nearly 2,000 Syrians have been subjected to torture and human rights violations in Bashar Al-Assad’s prisons, according to a report published by the Syrian Observatory for Human Right’s yesterday.

The organisation said: “A total of 1,917 Syrian detainees have died in numerous prisons, detention centres and basements belonging to intelligence branches affiliated with the Syrian regime since the beginning of this year until 31 October.”

“The Syrian regime’s forces handed some of the bodies over to the victim’s loved ones while others were informed that their family member may have been killed in prison and that they should have a death certificate issued in their name. Other families were asked to sign a declaration that their family members were killed by opposition groups when in reality, they died from being tortured by the regime,” the statement clarified.

According to the observatory, the largest number of reported deaths was in June when 284 detainees died from torture in the regime’s security headquarters.