Syrian protestors routinely tortured in detention: Amnesty

Damascus, Mar 14(ANI): People detained by the Syrian authorities are being systematically and routinely tortured, an Amnesty International report has claimed.

Amnesty accused Syrian officials of using techniques, including suspending and beating detainees with fists and rifle butts.

The report also documents specific torture methods used, including the dulab, where the victim is forced into a tyre, which is hoisted up so they can be beaten on the feet.

Another is known as shabeh, where the victim is suspended from a raised hook or door frame so their feet hang just above the ground.

An Amnesty report titled 'I Wanted to Die' is based on the testimony gathered during a visit to Jordan in mid-February, during which its researchers interacted with dozens of people who had fled from Syria.

"The testimonies we have heard give disturbing insights into a system of detention and interrogation which, a year after protests began, appears intended primarily to degrade, humiliate and terrify its victims into silence," the BBC quoted Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa Programme's Ann Harrison, as saying.

The report comes in the wake of UN announcement that it would soon deploy human rights monitors to countries bordering Syria to collect eyewitness testimony on "atrocities" committed in the country.

Amnesty has called on the Syrian authorities to stop carrying out arbitrary arrests and to cease torture and other ill-treatment of detainees.

It is, however, hard to verify such reports as international journalists face severe restrictions on reporting in Syria. (ANI)