(Zaman Al Wasl)- The Syrian regime has transferred five political detainees from Sweida central prison to notorious Sednaya Military prison near the capital, a step before being executed, a well-informed military source told Zaman al-Wasl Monday.
Names of the detainees are Zakaria Khriba, Zakaria Jahaym, Abdel Rahman Matar, Abdo Mousa and Samir Al-Ferra.
Most of the Syrian opposition detainees have underwent sham trials before military courts and were sometimes forced to make confessions under torture, according to Amnesty.
A report published by the Washington Post daily last year said Bashar al-Assad’s army is doubling down on executions of political prisoners, with military judges accelerating the pace they issue death sentences.
Satellite imagery of the Sednaya prison grounds taken in March 2018 shows an accumulation of dozens of dark objects that experts said were consistent with human bodies. The imagery was obtained by The Washington Post, which asked forensic experts to review it.
Other satellite imagery of military land near Damascus, previously identified by Amnesty International as a location of mass graves, appeared to show an increase in the number of burial pits and headstones in at least one cemetery there since the start of 2018. Defectors who worked in the military prison system said this area, located south of the capital, is the likely location for the mass burial of Sednaya prisoners.
A chilling Amnesty International report published in 2017, exposed the “cold-blooded killing of thousands of defenseless prisoners” in Sednaya prison jail where an estimated 13,000 people have been hanged in the past five years, and where mass hangings of up to 50 people at a time occur every week, sometimes twice a week.
Eight years of war in Syria have killed 560,000 people and driven half the pre-war population of 22 million from their homes, including more than 6 million as refugees to neighbouring countries.
AGPS contributed in this report
Zaman Al Wasl
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