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- Smuggled Evidence Shows 'Industrial-Scale Killing' of Syrian Prisoners
A report conducted by three international war crimes prosecutors and released to news organizations Monday claims to provide “clear evidence” of “industrial-scale killing” of 11,000 detainees at the hands of the Syrian government.
The report pulls from a trove of government photographs and documents, as well as testimony provided by a former Syrian military police photographer who had worked secretly with a Syrian opposition group and later defected and fled the country.
The Guardian, who has published the documents, reports:
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The three lawyers who conducted the report—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—said that after three sessions over the course of 10 days they found the source, who’s identity is being protected, to be credible.
The UN as well as human rights groups have uncovered abuses by Bashar al-Assad’s government as well as rebel groups in the past.
“We have documented repeatedly how Syria’s security services regularly torture – sometimes to death – detainees in their custody,” said Nadim Houry of Human Rights Watch who emphasized that his organization has not had the opportunity to authenticate Monday’s report.
“These photos – if authentic – suggest that we may have only scratched the surface of the horrific extent of torture in Syria’s notorious dungeons. There is only one way to get to the bottom of this and that is for the negotiating parties at Geneva II to grant unhindered access to Syria’s detention facilities to independent monitors.”
The Guardian adds:
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