Syria Tortured And Executed 11,000 Prisoners

Picture evidence from defector
alleges systematic torture and
“industrial-scale” killing of
prisoners by Syria’s President
Assad’s regime, according to
Desmond de Silva, former chief
prosecutor of the special court
for Sierra Leone.
The defector, identified only as
“Caesar”, presented about
55,000 images of 11,000 dead
prisoners since the start of the
uprising in Syria in March 2011.
The evidence was viewed by
forensic experts commissioned
by a London legal firm
representing Qatar.
The defector claims that the
victims all died in captivity before
being taken to a military hospital
to be photographed.
“The pictures show over a
period of years the systematic
murder of detainees by
starvation, by torture, the
gouging out of eyes, the
hideous beating of people, the
mutilation of bodies,” De Silva
said.
The report says that all but one
of the victims were male. Most
appeared to be aged between
20 and 40 and a “very significant
percentage” showed evidence of
starvation.
The defector “informed the
inquiry team that there could be
as many as 50 bodies a day to
photograph which required 15
to 30 minutes of work per
corpse”, the report said.
He said the purpose of the
photos was firstly to be able to
issue death certificates – falsely
saying that the victims had died
in hospital – and secondly to
confirm to the regime that
executions had been carried
out.
The bodies would then be
buried in rural areas.
The authors of the report said
they found the informant and
his evidence to be credible after
subjecting them to “rigorous
scrutiny” and have made their
findings available to the UN,
governments and human rights
groups.
The fact that the defector had
not claimed to have actually
witnessed any of the killings
added credibility to his story,
they said.
He later escaped from Syria
fearing for the safety of his
family.
“There came a point a few
months ago where he decided
that he couldn’t take it anymore,
so he decided to defect and he
left. He could well have gone to
Qatar, yes,” said De Silva.
Crane called the evidence
“amazing” and suggested there
was a strong case for
prosecution.
“Now we have direct evidence of
what was happening to people
who had disappeared,” he said.
“This is the first provable, direct
evidence of what has happened
to at least 11,000 human beings
who have been tortured and
executed and apparently
disposed of.”