Syria Executed Half Ton Detainees At Saydnaya Prison Per Week During 2011-15: Amnesty

Amnesty International claims Syrian government had executed at least 13,000 civilian opposition supporters and others between September 2011 and December 2015 secretly at Saydnaya prison, just north to Damascus.

If believed to the UN human rights group, the executions were authorized at the highest levels of the government.

However, the Syrian government had earlier denied killing of the detainees or even mistreating them.

The group adds to have collected documentary evidence as well as have witness accounts that strongly suggest tens and thousands of people were detained and executions were done on a massive scale, around 20 to fifty people once or twice a week.

The human rights group claims to have interviewed 84 people including detainees, prison officials and former guards for the report that reveals the detainees were brought before a military field court for a trial of one to three minutes before being executed.

A former military court judge is claimed to have said, “Whether the answer is ‘yes’ or ‘no’, he will be convicted… This court has no relation with the rule of law.”

The former judge claims to have seen the hangings. He said, “They kept them [hanging] there for 10 to 15 minutes. Some didn’t die because they are light. For the young ones, their weight wouldn’t kill them. The officers’ assistants would pull them down and break their necks.”