Here are some of the most shocking moments of detainee abuse detailed in the UN’s periodic OHCHR reports:



http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/IICISyria/Pages/IndependentInternationalCommission.aspx

Torture of Hospital patients

Patients were attached to the beds with metallic chains. They were all naked, attached in their beds (usually two to four per bed, attached to each other) where they would eat, drink, sleep and urinate and defecate into a plastic bag as there were no toilets. Several patients had serious illnesses such as respiratory infections but never received appropriate care or treatment. With almost no exceptions, all patients were severely malnourished; “skin and bones”.

Suffocation

As punishment, guards used to close the small opening in the door, the only source of fresh air to the cell.



Many detainees died inside the cell either due to s everal consecutive days of torture or due to lack of air and medical care.

Mental Breakdown

Inmates were only given marmalade with one small piece of bread to eat. Due to the lack of medical care, extreme dirtiness, lack of food, lack of fresh air, and bad sleeping conditions, several inmates became mentally ill and stopped eating.

Blinded with a Screwdriver

One interviewee was stopped while driving in Homs city by Shabbiha. He was given electric shocks and the Shabbiha attempted to blind him with a screwdriver. He lost the use of sight in his right eye. At the time of interview, the damage to his left eye, as a result of untreated infection, was apparent.

Burnt with cigarettes

A 14 year old girl, was abducted by four men, two of whom were in uniform, and held a building in Idlib. She was interrogated about her mother’s work with the FSA. She described being beaten, burnt with cigarettes and injected with an unknown substance. In interview, her doctor stated that she had injuries highly consistent with her account.

Electric shocks to the genitals

One interviewee, arrested in mid-July during a house search and taken to the ‘Palestine branch’ of Military Security in Damascus, reported that he had been hung from the ceiling; given electric shocks to his genitals, had cigarettes extinguished on his body, including on his anus; and was beaten with a hose.

Thrown from the roof

An interviewee, who worked at the Palestine branch, stated that between June and August, he witnessed detainees hung from the ceiling by the wrists for extended periods of time; having electric shocks applied to their genitals and ears; and beaten. Further, he indicated that he witnessed one detainee being thrown off the roof of the building by intelligence officers, causing his death.



Interviewees described being placed in prolonged stress positions; severe beatings about the head and body with electric cables, whips, metal and wooden sticks and rifle butts; electric shocks applied to sensitive parts of the body, including the genitals and ears; burnt with cigarettes; and kicked.

Boiling water

Persons detained at the Military Security branch in Dara’a were consistently subjected to electric shocks, beatings and the stretching of limbs (busat al rih). Hundreds of detainees were held in dangerously over crowded Conditions, forcing them to sleep standing up. In a facility operated by the 38th Regiment in Bosra (Dara’a), detainees were subjected to shabh, had boiling water poured on them and electric shocks administered.



The commission received reports of detainees being placed in prolonged stress positions, such as hanging from walls or ceilings by their wrists (shabah ) and hanging by wrists tied behind their backs.

Suspended by wrists for 17 days

Detainees in the Al-Fehar Branch in Damascus were held in solitary confinement “squatting cells”, in which it was impossible to stand upright or lie down. One detainee was held in such conditions for 10 months, beaten daily, suspended by his wrists for 17 days, burned with cigarettes and subjected to electric shocks.

12 year old boy electrocuted

In mid-2013, a 12-year-old boy was arrested in Damascus after speaking with his cousin, a member of an armed group. The family hired a lawyer, who determined that the boy had been held in Military Security Branch 235. On their taking the matter to court, the judge informed them that the boy was at a private hospital. When they arrived there, they were told their son was dead. His body bore marks of severe torture, including electrocution.

Hung from the ceiling

In late 2013, a woman was arrested at a checkpoint in Jaramana (Damascus) and taken to Mezzeh detention facility. During interrogations, government officials hung her from the ceiling by her wrists and beat her on the head, body and soles of her feet. Scars are still visible.

Forced into a car tyre

Detainees held at the Latakia Military Security branch are systematically tortured, beaten with batons and cables, punched, kicked and subjected to dulab, whereby detainees are forced into a tyre and beaten.

Appalling sanitation

Detainees had to drink their own urine in order to survive. Four detainees reported that their cells were not equipped with toilets and that detainees often had to relieve themselves in the cells as they were not permitted to exit the cells to go to the bathrooms.

Teeth pulled out

One 26-year-old woman told of repeated night-long interrogation sessions, during which she was beaten with electric cables and had her teeth pulled out. On one occasion, a security officer took her and another woman to a room where they were raped.

Toenails torn off with pliers

A 30-year-old university student described how he was beaten, how his beard was pulled out in clumps, his feet burned and his toenails torn off with pliers at an Air Force Intelligence facility in Hama, where he was interrogated daily for more than a month.

Water torture

Military Intelligence officers used water torture, such as simulated drowning, at Branch 227.