Syrian Former Political Prisoners Demand in Beirut to Halt Torture in Syrian Prisons
Syrian former political prisoners called on the United Nations on Thursday to uncover the fate of thousands of Arabs who have gone missing in Syria and are believed to have been jailed without charge.
"We call for the formation of a committee to investigate the Syrian regime's persistent violation of human rights and the enforced disappearance of thousands of Lebanese, Syrians, Palestinians and Jordanians at the hands of the regime," Syrian dissident Mamoun Homsi told a Beirut news conference.
A former member of parliament, Homsi was sentenced to five years in prison in 2001 for "attempting to overthrow the regime" and now lives in Lebanon with his family.
He and other members of the Beirut-based Committee of Torture Victims in the Prisons of the Syrian Regime also displayed torture methods they said are used in Syrian prisons, including a chair frame, whips and electric cables.
"We are trying to get the message out to the world, that the human rights situation in Syria is deteriorating," Homsi told AFP.
"There are 1,000 intelligence branches in Syria that use methods of torture on people who did nothing but express their opinion or demand basic rights," he said.
New York-based Human Rights Watch released what it said was a partial list on Thursday of detainees in one of Syria's largest prisons, at Saydnaya just north of the capital Damascus, whose families have been unable to obtain word of their whereabouts for 18 months.
The watchdog said it had documented the torture of inmates in the prison.(AFP)
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