Syria's regime has described claims it has hanged 13,000 people since 2011 as "totally untrue".

The country's justice ministry put out a statement saying the accusation by Amnesty International was part of a smear campaign.

The charity says it was told by detainees that mass hangings have been taking place at a prison called "the slaughterhouse" near Damascus.

Some inmates were allegedly executed after a "sham trial" lasting no more than a couple of minutes - and the killings were often authorised by senior Syrian officials, including deputies of President Bashar al Assad.

Life inside Syria's 'slaughterhouse'

The justice ministry statement said "misleading and inciting" media outlets carried Amnesty's allegations with the intention to damage the Syrian government's reputation on the world stage.


It also called Amnesty's allegations "baseless" as all executions in Syria follow due process and various stages of litigation.

"The justice ministry denies and condemns in the strongest terms what was reported because it is not based on correct evidence but on personal emotions that aim to achieve well-known political goals," the statement said.

Image: Mass graves in Syria

Amnesty's most recent figures suggest an average of 20 to 50 people were hanged every week at the Saydnaya prison between 2011 and 2015 - but many thousands more may have been executed since then.

The organisation has described the executions as a war crime, and is calling for a UN investigation.

Its report said: "The victims are overwhelmingly civilians who are thought to oppose the government. Many other detainees have been killed after being repeatedly tortured and systematically deprived of food, water, medicine and medical care."

'No one knows the ugly kinds of torture that occur inside'

Amnesty said it interviewed more than 30 ex-inmates at the prison and dozens of other officials and experts, including former guards and judges.

Damascus rejected the testimonies, questioning why those who spoke to Amnesty, if they were in the prison, were not themselves executed.

But the statement referred to the Amnesty report discussing executions of judges and lawyers, something it had not contained.

AP said the statement, which was put out by Syrian state-owned newsagency SANA, was later withdrawn without explanation.