Thousands tortured to death in Syrian prisons, reports human rights group

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights announced on Friday that it has documented evidence that around 13,000 people, including women and children, were killed in prisons run by the Syrian regime between March 2011 and June 2017, Anadolu has reported. The UK-based organisation revealed the details in a report entitled “Stop the Torture Machine” issued to mark the UN’s International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.

According to the report, 12,920 people were tortured to death inside Syria’s prisons during the period under review, including 161 children and 41 women. It added that the PYD, the Syrian branch of the Kurdish PKK, tortured 26 people to death, of whom one was a child and two were women. Daesh is said to have tortured at least 30 people to death, including one child and 13 women. A further 53 people were tortured to death by other groups involved in the Syrian conflict.

The observatory called for immediate action to stop all forms of torture, the suspension of the death penalty and the opening of investigations into deaths inside detention centres. People detained arbitrarily should be released, it added, and a team of independent international investigators should be given access to detention centres.

Since 2011, the Syrian war has caused the death of more than 400,000 citizens and driven more than half of the population to flee from their homes.