The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights

Torture victims | Five civilians die under torture in regime prisons since early January

SOHR calls for holding accountable all those responsible for torturing and killing Syrian civilians in regime prisons

SOHR activists have documented the death of five civilians under torture in regime prisons since early January 2022. It is worth noting that the victims, including a civilian who died under torture just after returning from Lebanon to visit his relatives, were from Deir Ezzor, Aleppo, Hama, Daraa and Idlib, and they had been arrested at various periods of time.

 

Further details on the circumstances of the death of these civilians can be summarised as follows:

 

  • January 1: A young man from Al-Baghouz town in the eastern countryside of Deir Ezzor died under torture in regime prisons, after he had arrested a few months earlier by regime forces stationed at Al-Masna’ crossing on the Syria-Lebanon border, while he was heading from Lebanon to Syria to visit his relatives.

 

  • January 6: A young man from Atareb city in west Aleppo countryside died under torture in regime prison, four years after being arrested in Tartus city for unknown reasons.

 

  • On the same day, January 6: A civilian from Hama province died under torture in Saydnaya prison, after more than a year of detention.

 

  • January 8: A civilian from Al-Hara city in northern Daraa died under torture in regime prison, after being imprisoned for four years. It is worth noting that the civilian served previously in the ranks of opposition factions.

 

  • January 13: A civilian from Idlib died under brutal torture and poor medical care in regime prison, after being arrested nearly nine years ago. It is worth noting that the victim was arrested in January 2013 by State Security Intelligence in Idlib and transferred to Security State headquarters in Damascus.

 

As more fatalities are recorded and updated regularly, the number of civilians dying under torture in regime prisons since the beginning of the Syrian revolution has risen to 47,524, all documented by names: 47,121 men and young men, 339 children under the age of eighteen, and 64 women over the age of eighteen.

 

Reliable sources have informed the Syrian Observatory that the number of people killed, executed and/or died in regime prisons exceeded 105,000 people. Over 83% of the total death toll were killed and/or died in these prisons between May 2013 and October 2015, the period when the Iranian were supervising regime’s prisons. SOHR sources have also confirmed that more than 30,000 detainees were killed in the notorious prison of Saydnaya alone, while the second largest percentage of killing occurred in the Air-Force Intelligence detention facilities or prisons.

 

We, at the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), warn against the ongoing indifference by the warring powers in Syria to the issue of detainees and forcibly disappeared. We also appeal to the international community to seriously intensify its efforts to disclose the fate of the detainees and forcibly disappeared people, and identify and hold the perpetrators accountable.