Syria 'killed and tortured' 11,000 detainees, say lawyers
Evidence of 'systemic killing' by government officials emerges day before start of peace talks
SYRIA was involved in the "systematic killing" and torture of 11,000 detainees and government officials could face war crimes charges, The Guardian reports.
The claims are based on a report which analysed a "huge cache" of digital photographs smuggled out of Syria by a former military photographer, the paper says. The images, which show the bodies of people who died while in the custody of regime's security forces between March 2011 to last August, reveal that many corpses were emaciated, bloodstained and bore signs of torture.
Some of the bodies - mostly of young men - had no eyes; others showed signs of strangulation or electrocution, the paper says.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The 55,000 images have been analysed by "three eminent international lawyers" who have compiled a report commissioned by Qatar, a supporter of Syria's rebels. The authors are Sir Desmond de Silva QC, former chief prosecutor of the special court for Sierra Leone, Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, the former lead prosecutor of former Yugoslavian president Slobodan Milosevic, and Professor David Crane, who indicted President Charles Taylor of Liberia at the Sierra Leone court.
One of the three told the BBC there was evidence of government involvement in the atrocities, a claim vehemently denied by the regime of Bashar al-Assad.
The timing of the report's release – a day before the start of talks in Geneva designed to end the civil war in Syria – is significant, the BBC says. Those talks are due to go ahead as scheduled after a last-minute invitation to Iran to participate was withdrawn by UN chief Ban Ki-Moon.
The invitation had prompted Syria's main Opposition group to threaten to boycott the talks and was criticised by the US.
Reuters says the withdrawal of Iran's invitation had averted the collapse of the talks, but not without cost. The invitation had triggered "24 hours of confusion that dismayed diplomats who have spent months cajoling Assad's opponents to negotiate".
The BBC says the 31-page report into the torture and killing of detainees in Syria is "more detailed and on a far larger scale than anything else that has yet emerged from the 34-month crisis".
The three lawyers who compiled the report say they found the military photographer, known only as Caesar, to be credible and truthful and his account "most compelling".
Caesar told the investigators his job was "taking pictures of killed detainees". He did not claim to have witnessed executions or torture. But he did describe a highly bureaucratic system.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
6 charming homes for the whimsical
Feature Featuring a 1924 factory-turned-loft in San Francisco and a home with custom murals in Yucca Valley
By The Week Staff Published
-
Big tech's big pivot
Opinion How Silicon Valley's corporate titans learned to love Trump
By Theunis Bates Published
-
Stacy Horn's 6 favorite works that explore the spectrum of evil
Feature The author recommends works by Kazuo Ishiguro, Anthony Doerr, and more
By The Week US Published
-
The challenge facing Syria's Alawites
Under The Radar Minority sect that was favoured under Assad now fears for its future
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
Islamic State: the terror group's second act
Talking Point Isis has carried out almost 700 attacks in Syria over the past year, according to one estimate
By The Week UK Published
-
What will happen in 2025? Predictions and events
The Explainer The new year could bring further chaos in the Middle East and an intensifying AI arms race – all under the shadow of a second Donald Trump presidency
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Kremlin seeks to quell Assad divorce reports
Speed Read Media reports suggest that British citizen Asma al-Assad wants to leave the deposed Syrian dictator and return to London as a British citizen
By Hollie Clemence, The Week UK Published
-
Inside the house of Assad
The Explainer Bashar al-Assad and his father, Hafez, ruled Syria for more than half a century but how did one family achieve and maintain power?
By The Week UK Published
-
Is it safe for refugees to return to Syria?
Talking Point European countries rapidly froze asylum claims after Assad's fall but Syrian refugees may have reason not to rush home
By Richard Windsor, The Week UK Published
-
Assad's fall upends the Captagon drug empire
Multi-billion-dollar drug network sustained former Syrian regime
By Richard Windsor, The Week UK Published
-
Why Assad fell so fast
The Explainer The newly liberated Syria is in an incredibly precarious position, but it's too soon to succumb to defeatist gloom
By The Week UK Published