(Writing by Faris AL Rifai; Translation by Yusra Ahmed)
Mahmood al-Naser, former detainee in the Syrian regime’s prisons, cannot forget his painful and traumatising experience, not only the pain of torturing, but the suffering of other detainees who were like alive bodies waiting to die.
Al-Naser reported that many detainees suffered of infected wounds, scabies, renal failure, shock, intestinal infection, amputations, and even many of them had their wounds were affected with maggots.
Mahmood was serving his mandatory military service in Southern Countryside of Aleppo in December 2010, when the revolution started, he defected with other 20 members from the army and joined the Free Syrian Army in January 2012, till he was arrested 4 months later in Deir Alasafir village in Damascus countryside after he was injured by a sniper.
Mahmood detailed the circumstances of arresting, as he was injured and the village was besieged, he entered a house where women tried to hide him from the regime forces, but he was unlucky as a “Shabih” saw him and arrested him. After that he journey of torturing started.
Al-Naser told Zaman Al Wasl that at the beginning he was tortured for 2 hours, to reveal the places of fighters. Then he Was transferred via an ambulance to hospital 601 because of his wounds. In the hospital he was tightened to a bed from his leg and arm and shared the 80 cm-wide - bed with another detainee.
“the very next day I was beaten hard by the officer because I spoke to a doctor, then I decided to abstain from food hoping to die, but after a week I returned to food, which was not enough at all, and I had to feed a patient near me because he was not able to use his hands.
Shabiha used to choose any detained patient to enjoy torturing, where they took patients to the corridor and force them to lie down, then they start hitting and kicking them very hard, where many of them die under torture.
According to the former detainee, there was no particular time for the “torturing parties” as they depended on the mode of “Shabiha” and officers, as they might choose anyone to spend the night enjoying torturing him all the night.
Al-Naser mentioned that most detainees were youths, with small number of children of elderly, and those who died were put in the toilets till the transferring van come and take them for burying.
In mid 2013, a team of war crimes prosecutors and forensic experts, had analyzed 55 thousand digital photos taken in 601 military hospital in Damascus and provided by a Syrian defector codenamed "Caesar," who, along with his family, is now living outside Syria in an undisclosed location, according to CNN.
The team members shared their findings in a joint exclusive with CNN's "Amanpour" and The Guardian newspaper on January 20, 2014.
The photos showed hundreds of lifeless bodies with signs of starvation, brutal beatings, strangulation and other forms of torture and killing.
Syria is not a member of the International Criminal Court. The only way the court could prosecute someone from Syria would be through a referral from the United Nations Security Council.
More than 250,000 people have been killed in Syria since the revolt against Bashar al-Assad began in March 2011.
Mahmood al-Naser, former detainee in the Syrian regime’s prisons, cannot forget his painful and traumatising experience, not only the pain of torturing, but the suffering of other detainees who were like alive bodies waiting to die.
Al-Naser reported that many detainees suffered of infected wounds, scabies, renal failure, shock, intestinal infection, amputations, and even many of them had their wounds were affected with maggots.
Mahmood was serving his mandatory military service in Southern Countryside of Aleppo in December 2010, when the revolution started, he defected with other 20 members from the army and joined the Free Syrian Army in January 2012, till he was arrested 4 months later in Deir Alasafir village in Damascus countryside after he was injured by a sniper.
Mahmood detailed the circumstances of arresting, as he was injured and the village was besieged, he entered a house where women tried to hide him from the regime forces, but he was unlucky as a “Shabih” saw him and arrested him. After that he journey of torturing started.
Al-Naser told Zaman Al Wasl that at the beginning he was tortured for 2 hours, to reveal the places of fighters. Then he Was transferred via an ambulance to hospital 601 because of his wounds. In the hospital he was tightened to a bed from his leg and arm and shared the 80 cm-wide - bed with another detainee.
“the very next day I was beaten hard by the officer because I spoke to a doctor, then I decided to abstain from food hoping to die, but after a week I returned to food, which was not enough at all, and I had to feed a patient near me because he was not able to use his hands.
Shabiha used to choose any detained patient to enjoy torturing, where they took patients to the corridor and force them to lie down, then they start hitting and kicking them very hard, where many of them die under torture.
According to the former detainee, there was no particular time for the “torturing parties” as they depended on the mode of “Shabiha” and officers, as they might choose anyone to spend the night enjoying torturing him all the night.
Al-Naser mentioned that most detainees were youths, with small number of children of elderly, and those who died were put in the toilets till the transferring van come and take them for burying.
In mid 2013, a team of war crimes prosecutors and forensic experts, had analyzed 55 thousand digital photos taken in 601 military hospital in Damascus and provided by a Syrian defector codenamed "Caesar," who, along with his family, is now living outside Syria in an undisclosed location, according to CNN.
The team members shared their findings in a joint exclusive with CNN's "Amanpour" and The Guardian newspaper on January 20, 2014.
The photos showed hundreds of lifeless bodies with signs of starvation, brutal beatings, strangulation and other forms of torture and killing.
Syria is not a member of the International Criminal Court. The only way the court could prosecute someone from Syria would be through a referral from the United Nations Security Council.
More than 250,000 people have been killed in Syria since the revolt against Bashar al-Assad began in March 2011.
Zaman Al Wasl
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