Thousands of people have been hanged at a Syrian prison in a secret crackdown on dissent by the regime of Bashar al-Assad, a report by Amnesty International has alleged.
The human rights group says up to 13,000 people have been executed at Saydnaya prison north of the capital Damascus in a "hidden" campaign authorized by senior regime figures.
Amnesty's report, Human slaughterhouse, says prisoners are moved in the middle of the night from their cells under the pretext of being transferred. They are taken to the grounds of the prison, where they are hanged, likely unaware of their fate until they feel the noose around their neck, Amnesty alleges.
The report is based on result of a year-long investigation, including interviews with 84 witnesses including security guards, detainees, judges and lawyers, Amnesty says.
Most of those hanged were civilians "believed to be opposed to the government," the report found.Via CNN.
The hangings have been conducted twice a week for five years and were allegedly authorized by a military tribunal.
There is also widespread torture at this prison as documented by photographic evidence.
Of course, the Syrian regime has also used chemical weapons against its own people and repeatedly bombed civilians.
This would be more executions than in any other country in the world except China, which has more than 400 times the population of Syria, and is unrivaled even by other Islamic countries who feel that Islamic law justifies executions and corporal punishment in circumstances where no other legal system does so.
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