Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad has ‘tortured and hanged 13,000 political prisoners’ in four years, human rights group says
Victims were given 'trials' lasting minutes before being sentenced to death, while others starved to death
SYRIAN leader Bashar al-Assad has tortured and hanged 13,000 political prisoners in four years, it was claimed.
Victims were given “trials” lasting just a few minutes before being sentenced to death, said human rights group Amnesty International.
Many others have died from starvation, infection or mental stress caused by barbaric conditions at Sedenya military jail.
A former Syrian military officer told the charity that 15 to 40 political prisoners were killed every day.
He said they were held at the 20,000-capacity jail, north of Damascus, with criminal inmates.
The bodies of those executed were slung into mass graves on military land, it is believed.
It is the first evidence said to prove that Assad, 51, has authorised torture to punish opponents and crush dissent.
He has long been suspected of such action.
Amnesty said: “It’s inconceivable that these large-scale and systematic practices have not been authorised at the highest levels of the Syrian government.”
But President Assad looks set to hold on to power because rebel forces have been repelled and a peace deal is under discussion.
Representatives of his regime are preparing to meet officials from Turkey, who have backed the rebels, later this month.
Russia and Iran, both Assad allies, will also join the talks.