Published : 21-10-2019
Palestinian refugees Said Mustafa Amrein and Ziad Lutif Amrein were tortured to death in Syria’s state-run prisons, where they had been forcibly disappeared for years. Their families received the death news following their appeals for information.
According to AGPS data, 610 Palestinian refugees were fatally tortured in Syrian government lock-ups, where at least 1,768 others have been secretly held.
Affidavits by ex-detainees have provided evidence on the involvement of Syrian government officers in harsh torture tactics, including electric shocks, heavy beating using whips and iron sticks, and sexual abuse against Palestinian detainees, in a flagrant violation of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, commonly known as the United Nations Convention against Torture (UNCAT).
AGPS estimates the real number to be far higher due to the gag orders slapped by the Syrian government on the detainees’ names and fates, along with the families’ reluctance to report such cases over retaliation concerns.
AGPS continues to urge the Syrian government to disclose the fate of scores of Palestinians held in its lock-ups, release the bodies of those tortured to death, to seriously work on halting harsh torture tactics, launch fact-finding probes into crimes of torture, and to bring those involved in such crimes before courts.
Palestinian refugees Said Mustafa Amrein and Ziad Lutif Amrein were tortured to death in Syria’s state-run prisons, where they had been forcibly disappeared for years. Their families received the death news following their appeals for information.
According to AGPS data, 610 Palestinian refugees were fatally tortured in Syrian government lock-ups, where at least 1,768 others have been secretly held.
Affidavits by ex-detainees have provided evidence on the involvement of Syrian government officers in harsh torture tactics, including electric shocks, heavy beating using whips and iron sticks, and sexual abuse against Palestinian detainees, in a flagrant violation of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, commonly known as the United Nations Convention against Torture (UNCAT).
AGPS estimates the real number to be far higher due to the gag orders slapped by the Syrian government on the detainees’ names and fates, along with the families’ reluctance to report such cases over retaliation concerns.
AGPS continues to urge the Syrian government to disclose the fate of scores of Palestinians held in its lock-ups, release the bodies of those tortured to death, to seriously work on halting harsh torture tactics, launch fact-finding probes into crimes of torture, and to bring those involved in such crimes before courts.
