Rights group: Syria issues 700 detainee death certificates

Syria has delivered nearly 700 detainee death certificates to the Civil Registry Directorate in the western city of Hama.

Syrians for Truth and Justice (STJ) said documents it had obtained show that many of the detainees died shortly after being imprisoned, but their deaths were reported only at the beginning of 2019.

The rights group added that though an employee at the Civil Registry Directorate has handed the victims’ families these death certificates, their relatives’ place of burial or the whereabouts of their bodies remain unknown.

“Beginning in May 2018, lists arrived in many Syrian provinces – including Damascus, Hama, Aleppo and Al-Hasakah – containing the names of arrestees and detainees who met their fate inside prisons affiliated with the Syrian security apparatus, or those under the custody of the Syrian government,” STJ said.

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