UN investigators are accusing Damascus of “extermination” in its jails and detention centers, saying prisoners were executed, tortured to death or held in such horrific conditions that they perished.
Over the past four and a half years, thousands of detainees have been killed while being held by different sides in Syria’s brutal conflict, the UN commission of inquiry on Syria says in its latest report.
The report paints a stark picture of prisons and detention centers run by the Syrian authorities.
“The mass scale of deaths of detainees suggests that the government of Syria is responsible for acts that amount to extermination as a crime against humanity,” commission head Paulo Pinheiro tells reporters.
The Syrian government was also guilty of committing a range of other war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder, rape, torture and forced disappearance, the commission says.
— AFP
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