Exclusive report

!1
!
Syrian Center for Journalistic Freedoms Exclusive report

!2
!

!3
!
On the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture
On June 26 of every year, the world celebrates the International Day in Support
of Victims of Torture which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly
based on a resolution issued on 12/12/1997.
On this occasion, the Syrian Center for Journalistic Freedoms (SCJF) in the Syrian
Journalists Association (SJA) publishes a special report in support of the victims of
torture in Syria, especially media professionals who have been subjected to all
kinds of torture, cruel and degrading treatment because of their insistence on
communicating the truth and revealing what has been happening in Syria since
the Syrian revolution started in mid-March 2011.
All the regime prisons and detention centers, security branch detention centers
and military prisons, are known, as places where detainees are subjected to
various types of torture. All credible human rights reports demonstrate that most,
if not all, detainees are brutally tortured by intelligence agents, the police or the
army making it impossible to estimate the number of those who were tortured in
these places.
In a report entitled, “The Human Slaughterhouse” published on February 07,
2017, Amnesty International revealed that 13,000 civilians were executed in
Sednaya prison in various ways. The United States of America recently published
several reports showing evidence that the Syrian regime has set up a “crematory”
to dispose of the bodies of the detainees killed in Sednaya prison. The American
report indicated the possibility that 50 detainees are executed daily in this prison.
29 Media Professionals Died Under Torture in
Assad’s Detention Centers

!4
!
For its part, Human Rights Watch confirmed in a report entitled “If the Dead
Could Speak… Mass Deaths and Torture in Syria’s Detention Facilities” published
in 16/12/2015, that “it found evidence of widespread torture, starvation, beatings
and diseases in Syrian governmental detention centers.”
Human Rights Watch published the report after nine months of investigation
during which the organization relied in part on 28,000 pictures taken of
deceased in government detention camps. The photographs were leaked by a
former Syrian military police photographer, known as Caesar, after he fled from
Syria in July 2013. The photographs were published for the first time in January
2014.
In its 90-page report, Human Rights Watch said, “The photographs show at least
6786 detainees who died either in the detention centers or after being transferred
from detention centers to a military hospital.” According to the report, all these
detainees were held “in five of the intelligence service branches in Damascus.”
Human Rights Watch considers the thousands photographs of detainees who died
under torture inside government prisons as “irrefutable evidence” of the regime’s
crimes against humanity, and it called for those responsible to be held
accountable.
Media professionals were among the most prominent persons to experience
violations in Syria as the various parties to the conflict targeted them. However,
the regime remains since the first day of the revolution until the present time, the
side which committed the most violations against media professionals. In this
regard, Journalist Hanadi al-Khatib, a member of the Syrian Journalist Association
said, “Syrian media professionals formed a link between what was happening
inside Syria and the outside world. As the regime prevented foreign journalists
from being present in Syria, it was necessary for local Syrian media activity to
communicate what was happening.”

!5
!
“When the regime and its supporters were investing a lot in promoting a positive
image of the regime internationally, this attempt was damaged by the prominent
role Syrian media professionals and journalists played at the start of the
revolution. They revealed its [the regime’s] practices and communicated a large
part of what was happening in the country to the world, so the regime and its
supporters especially Russia turned to monitoring journalists and media
professionals. Russia used the knowledge and technologies at its disposal to
monitor the internet and telephone numbers to reach the people wanted, and
those communicating with the outside world. The regime used various methods to
reach media professionals and practices many types of torture against those it
caught. And sadly this ‘battle’ has not ended yet.”
According to the Syrian Center for Journalistic Freedoms’ (SCJF) documentation
database and all the human rights networks documenting violations, all the media
professionals who were arrested or detained by Syrian government apparatuses
were subjected to various forms of torture. Owing to the difﬁculty of mentioning
all cases due to their high number, the SCJF has chosen to mention the most
severe cases where the torture led to the death of the victim.
26/06/2016
Syrian Journalist Association
Syrian Center for Journalistic Freedoms

!6
!
In accordance with the Convention against Torture and other cruel, inhumane,
degrading treatment or punishment adopted by the General Assembly of the
United Nations and which entered into force on 26/06/1987, “torture” is defined
as: any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is
intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a
third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third
person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or
coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any
kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with
the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an
official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent
in or incidental to lawful sanctions.
The Definition of Torture

!7
!
The SCJF in the SJA has documented hundreds of instances of violations committed against
media professionals in Syria since the start of the revolution in mid-March 2011, including
the killing of 407 media professionals. Among the journalists who lost their lives, 29 were
reported to have been killed under torture in regime prisons and detention centers. At the
same time, the fate of many detained journalists remains unknown in a country that ranks
177th out of 180 countries in the World Press Freedom report published by Reporters without
Borders in 2016.
In 2011, the SCJF recorded two cases of media professionals who were killed under torture. In
2012, the center documented seven cases. In 2013, the center documented six cases and 2014
witnessed five reported cases of death under torture. In 2015, another five cases were
reported. Three cases were documented in 2016. The latest case documented in 2017 was the
confirmation that the journalist Osama al-Habali under torture in 2015.
In this report, we will present a summary of all these cases in chronological order based on
when the SCJF documented the report of the media professional’s death and not according
to their date of death. The SCJF presents the information in this manner as it is impossible to
ascertain when exactly a detainee died due to the secrecy exercised by the Syrian
authorities and the difficulty of accessing official records inside prisons and detention
centers.
29 cases of Death under Torture

!8
!
The cases documented by the SCJF were distributed across several Syrian governorates.
The regime prisons and detention centers in Damascus, Damascus countryside and
Aleppo province were witness to the largest numbers of these cases.
Damascus countryside, where Sednaya prison and Adra prison are located, was the site
for 11 killings. Damascus city, which has a large number of security and intelligence
branch prisons, witnessed eight cases of death under torture.
The prisons and detention centers in Aleppo were the sites for five cases, while the
security service prisons in Homs province witnessed three cases, and one case occurred
in each of Idlib and Daraa province.
Geographical distribution of these violations

!9
!
*The journalist and photographer Nizar Adnan Homsah was killed on
26/11/2011, under torture in an intelligence detention center in Homs
city.
Homsah was a media activist and photographer from Hay al-Bayadah Homs
city. He was arrested by the Syrian intelligence in Homs city in late October
2011 following his media activity in the city. The intelligence services
handed his body back to his family after he was killed under torture while
in detention.
*Farzat Yahya al-Jarban was killed on
20/11/2011 while being tortured in one of the
intelligence detention center in Homs city.
Al-Jarban, a photographer and media activist
from the city of Homs-Qusayr, was arrested by
Syrian Air Force Intelligence ofﬁcers. His body
was found the day after his arrest on a public
road with signs of brutal torture on his body and
face.
The Cases Documented In 2011
Farzat al-jarban

!10
!
*The media activist Rami Ismail Iqbal was killed under torture in a prison in
Daraa, in southern Syria.
Rami, 28 years, was a media activist and photographer from the city of Daraa-
Da'al and a student at the Faculty of Economics at the University of Damascus.
He specialized in photographing the demonstrations in Daraa, the regime
shelling and its effects, and the Syrian regime forces’ violations against
civilians. On December 21, 2012, the Syrian forces stormed the city of Da'al and
targeted Iqbal and several other activists. Iqbal suffered several serious gun
wounds and was arrested by the regime forces. There was no news of Iqbal
until a Da'al media activist who was arrested on the same day as Iqbal was
released from prison. This media activist conﬁrmed that Iqbal died in detention
due to the serious nature of his wounds and the severe torture he experienced.
*Hassan Ahmad Azhari, a media activist and photographer, was killed under
torture in the Military Intelligence Branch in Damascus. Azhari, from Latakia
city, was arrested in Latakia city by Syrian intelligence agents on 27/03/2012,
and died under torture on 17/05/2012.
Azhari was a photographer and communicated with several media organizations
including Reuters, and several international newspapers and magazines. His
family received the news of his death on 11/06/2012 and he was buried in
Damascus.
Rami iqbal
Hassan Azhari

!11
!
*Mahmoud Sidqi Sakaita, a media activist, was killed under torture in a prison in Idlib
city, after he was arrest at a regime checkpoint in Jabl al-Zawiyeh, Idlib province.
Sakaita was a media activist working as a reporter for the Idlib News Network. Syrian
regime army arrested him at a regime checkpoint in Jabl al-Zawiyeh. At the time, he
had his laptop and camera with him. He was interrogated, tortured, beaten and
executed. His body was left out in the wilderness for several days. His body was later
found and buried in al-Maghareh village without being identified. On 22/07/2012, his
family identified his body from the remains of his clothes in Ariha district, Idlib
province.
*Hisham Mousali was killed under torture in a Syrian prison in Damascus. Mousali, a
journalist and editor at the General Organization of Syrian Arab Radio and TV, was
arrested by the security in charge of the Organization in Damascus. The security
apparatus returned his body to his family in Damascus on 15/11/2012, after two
months of detention in the regime prisons.
*The media activist Omar Abdel Razzaq Latouf, known as Omar al-Homsi, was killed
under torture by Syrian Army members in Aleppo countryside. He was arrested at the
ICARDA checkpoint near Aleppo when he was returning from Turkey. He was brutally
tortured and died under torture on 21/10/2012.
Latouf, from the town of Talbisah in Homs countryside, was one of the most
prominent media activists in the revolution. He was one of the founders of the
General Commission of the Syrian Revolution and responsible for its media office. He
Omar LatoufHisham MousaliMahmoud Sakaita

!12
!
established the Homs News Room and was one of the founders of the Ahrar Talbisah
Coordination and Ahrar Homs Collective. As part of his media activities, Latouf was in
contact with several news channels.
*Mohammed Juma Abdul Karim al-Latuf, a media
activist, was killed under torture by Syrian
regime Army members after he was arrested at
the ICARDAR checkpoint in Aleppo countryside
while returning from Turkey. He was brutally
torturedanddiedundertortureon21/10/2012.
Al-Latuf was born in 1990 in the town of
Talbisah in Homs countryside. He worked as a
media activist and photographer Talbisah city.
He was a member of the General Commission
of the Syrian Revolution and a member of the
Talbisah Local Coordination Media Committee. He managed the Talbisah media pages
on Facebook and Twitter as well as documenting demonstrations happening in the
city and regime violations. He was one of the people responsible for broadcasting live
newsfeeds from the city.
*Abdullah Hassan Kaqah was killed under torture at
the Military Intelligence Headquarters branch in
Aleppo on 17/11/2012.Media sources in Salah al-Din
district in Aleppo confirmed this news.
Abdullah Hassan Kaqah, 27 years, was a native of
Aleppo city and a media activist in the city.
Mohammed al-Latuf
Abdullah Hassan Kaqah

!13
!
* At the beginning of February 2013, news
was released that the physician and
journalist Ayham Mustafa Ghazul, an
activist in the Syrian Center for Media and
Freedom of Expression, died under
torture on 09/11/2012, in the Air Force
IntelligenceBranchinDamascus. 
Ghazul was born in 1987 in Deir Atiya in
Damascus countryside. He was studying
for a masters degree for a specialization
in dentistry. He was arbitrarily detained along with other colleagues at the Syrian
Center for Media and Freedom of Expression after the Air Force intelligence forces
raided their offices on 16/02/2012. He was detained for 67 days in the Air Force
Intelligence Branch, Mezzeh Airport, and the Fourth Brigade. He was then transferred to
Adra prison in Damascus where he spent 21 days. A military court sentenced him along
with six other colleagues and someone who happened to be visiting the Center at the
time of the raid. Ghazul was charged with “possessing and publishing prohibited
documents with the aim of overthrowing the government.” He received a sentence for
the duration, three months, which he had been detained. He was arrested again on
05/11/2012. 
* Media activist Abdul Rahim Kur Hassan, known as
Mohammed al-Ghazali, was killed under torture in
the Palestine Branch of the Military Intelligence in
Damascus on 02/04/2013, according to Watan
RadioFM. 
Kur Hassan worked as a broadcasting director at
Watan Radio (FM). He was arrested around four
months (December 2012-January 2013) before he
was killed because of his media activities in
Damascuscity. 
AyhamMustafaGhazul
AbdulRahimKurHassan

!14
!
* Media activist Ahmed Taha al-Sayed
Taha was killed under torture in Adra
prison in Damascus countryside on
28/04/2013, several months after his
arrest, according to the Violations
Documentation Center (VDC) in Syria. 
Al-Sayed Taha, 28 years old, was from Jura
neighborhood in Deir Ez Zor and was
active in the media ﬁeld.
* Media activist Raad Rustam, died under
to r t u re i n t h e M i l i t a r y S e c u r i t y
headquarters in Aleppo, on 13/06/2013. 
Raad, 23, was from Ainjara in Aleppo
countryside. He was a university student
and media activist working in Aleppo city
and its countryside.s
* Media activist Ziad Arafa was killed under
torture at the State Security Headquarter Branch
in Damascus city. The news of his death was
reported on 24/08/2013. 
Ziad worked on several Syrian websites including
Esyria as well as working as a sports journalist.
Ziad Arafa
Ahmed al-Sayed Taha
Raad Rustam

!15
!
* The journalist Abdul Hadi Qashit was
killed under torture at the Air Force
Intelligence Branch in Aleppo city. There
was no news about Qashit following his
arrest until it was reported that he died
under torture on 08/10/2013.  
Qashit, born in 1967, began his career in
journalism in the Baath newspaper in
1991. He went on to write for other
Syrian newspapers and some Arab newspapers. He also published short story
books including “Implications in the Presence and Conscience” and wrote
many literary and theatrical criticism articles. He participated in many literary
events, festivals and competitions, and received some prizes for his work. He
was awarded the ﬁrst prize in the Arab Writers Union’s short story
competition for his story “A Letter to the Director General” in 1998.
*Moaz al-Khaled, a media professional and
poet, was killed under torture in Adra prison
in Damascus countryside. Al-Khaled was
originally from the occupied Syrian Golan
Heights and was residing in the Masaken
neighborhood in Barzah Damascus. The
Political Security Forces in Damascus
arrested him due to his revolutionary
activities on 05/06/2012. He was
transferred among different prisons to end
up in political isolation in Adra prison. He was tortured in all of the prisons he
was transferred to, and suffered a neurological disease and amnesia due to
the torture. His body was handed over to his family on 01/03/2014, ten days
after his death. 
Abdul Hadi Qashit
Moaz al-Khaled

!16
!
* Kinan Zakwan al-Atassi, a media activist, was killed
under torture at the Military Security Headquarters
Branch in Homs. News of his death was reported to his
family on 09/03/2014. 
Al-Atassi was born in 1987 in Homs al-Qarabis
neighborhood. He was married and had a child at the
time of his arrest. He was one of the founders of the
Homs al-Jazeera channel. He was detained in the 248
Branch of the Military Intelligence from 14/11/2012,
after he was arrested at an Air Force Intelligence
checkpoint in Homs city.
*The journalist and television
newsmaker Bilal Ahmed Bilal was
killed under torture in Sednaya Prison
Damascus countryside. Bilal was
arrested in September 2011 for his
involvement in the peaceful
movement at the beginning of the
Syrian revolution. A military court in
Damascus sentenced him to 15 years in prison. Since his arrest, he was
severely tortured which led to his death in December 2013. The regime only
informed his family of his death on 28/04/2014, Bilal, born in al-Moadamiya
al-Sham Damascus countryside in 1984, was married with two children. He
worked in television production for several channels, the last of which was
Palestine Today channel. 
* The media activist Ayman Zahr Tabash, was killed under torture on 25/01/2014.
Tabash was from the city of al-Dumayr in Damascus countryside. News of his death
was reported on 04/05/2014. He was arrested at a Qatifa checkpoint in Damascus
countryside on 05/01/2014. He was handed over to the Military Security branch in
the area. During his time in detention, he was moved to Tishreen military hospital
in Damascus countryside to receive treatment for the injuries he sustained due to
the torture. He was tortured in the hospital, and he died there.  
Kinan Zakwan al-Atassi
Bilal Ahmed Bilal

!17
!
* The journalist Mohammed Omar Hamed al-Khatib (33)
was killed due to the torture he suffered since his arrest on
08/01/2012 in Damascus after he stood before the head of
the Arab Investigative Mission to Syria to explain what was
happening in the country. 
After his arrest, al-Khatib was transferred among intelligence
service branches before being moved to Sednaya Prison in
Damascus countryside. He was tortured and killed there. 
The Syrian authorities informed al-Khatib’s family of his
death on 28/06/2014. They handed over al-Khatib’s identity
card but not his body. The Moadamiya al-Sham Media Center
confirmed his death under torture on 18/06/2014.
*Media activist Ahmed Ibrahim Naqrash was killed under torture in Sednaya prison in
Damascus countryside. Naqrash was a media activist in the al-Dumayr Local
Coordination Council. The regime forces arrested him in an ambush in Dumayr in
Damascus countryside on 23/12/2011. He was registered as still living seven
months before his mother was informed that he died when she came to visit him in
Sednaya prison. His parents identified him among the images of the victims of the
Sednaya prison who were killed under torture after the images were leaked in April
2015.
 
* Media activist Yaman Ershidat Abazid was killed
under torture in Sednaya Prison in Damascus. 
Abazid was arrested on 10/10/2012, at a regime
force checkpoint in the city of Daraa, after returning
from a media assignment in the city’s eastern
countryside. There has been no news about Abazid
since his arrest. His family identified him among the
images of victims of Sednaya prison leaked in April
2015. The image shows that he was tortured.
 
Mohammed Omar al-Khatib
Yaman Abazid

!18
!
* Media activist Qutaiba Baku Shaykhani, nicknamed
Abu Sherko, was killed under torture in Sednaya Prison. 
Baku Shaykhani was arrested from his offices in the
Shaalan neighborhood in Damascus on 31/12/2012. He
was the director of the Ansar Party’s media office and a
member of the Party’s political and media committee.
There has been no news of Baku Shaykhan since his
arrest. His parents identified him among the images of
the victims of torture in Sednaya prison which were
leaked in 2015. The image shows clear signs that he
was tortured. 
* The journalist Hamed al-Masalamah was killed under
torture in the Military Intelligence, Palestine Branch, in
Damascus, according to the statements of one of his
relatives on 25/8/2015. 
Al-Masalamah (30 years) was arrested in Daraa province
on 12/12/2012. He was a graduate of media studies
and studying for a masters degree in Damascus
University. He began working as a media activist in
Daraa province with the start of the Syrian revolution.
He was financially supporting his father at the time of
his arrest.
 
*The cartoonist Akram Raslan was killed under
torture in one of the Security Branches in Damascus.
Raslan was arrested in October 2012, from his place
of work at al-Fidaa newspaper in Hama city. His
friends circulated the news of his death on
20/09/2015. He is believed to have died under
torture several months after his arrest in October
2012. Eyewitnesses informed Raslan’s family of his
death in September 2015. 
The Cartoonist Rights Network International awarded
Raslan the Award for Courage in 2012.
Qutaiba Shaykhani
Hamed al-Masalamah
Akram Raslan

!19
!
*The journalist Samer Ibrahim al-Hussein was
killed under torture in one of the Syrian
intelligence detention centers. On 20/09/2016,
the Syrian security forces asked his relatives to
come to the security branch to sign al-Hussein’s
death certificate for them to receive his body.  
Syrian security agents arrested Samer and his
brother in an ambush in front of his house in al-
Kashef neighborhood in Daraa while he was in
the city trying to visit his family on 12/01/2014. 
Samer, who joined the Association of Syrian Journalists before his arrest, worked since
the beginning of the Syrian revolution covering and documenting the demonstrations
in Daraa city. He contributed to developing the techniques and technologies of live
broadcasting, and he was responsible for the first live news feeds broadcasted from al-
Jizeh village on Al Jazzera. He prepared reports for Arab satellite channels and worked as
a photographer in the Reuters news agency office in Jordan after he left Syria.
*On June 18, 2016, the Syrian Arab TV
cameraman Bilal al-Hussein was killed under
torture at the Military Intelligence headquarter
branch in Damascus. He was arrested by the
215 Intelligence Service Branch with several
other television staff members in Damascus on
17/06/2012. His friends circulated news of his
death on 18/06/2016 after receiving the news
of his death under torture along with several other detainees held with him in the
branch responsible for protecting the television headquarters.
Bilal al-Hussein
Samer al-Hussein

!20
!
* The family of the journalist Nabil Sharbaji
(30 years), one of the founders of Enab
Baladi newspaper, received news in
December 2016 that Nabil died under torture
on 3/05/2015 in Sednaya prison. 
Nabil Sharbaji was arrested on 26/02/2012 by
the Air Force Intelligence forces in Daraya in
Damascus countryside. He was transferred to Adra
Central Prison and then to Sednaya Prison in the
Syrian countryside. He was sentenced to nine years'
imprisonment. 
* The family of the media activist Osama Khaled al-
Habali received news on 23/05/2017 that he died
under torture in Sednaya prison. The news came nearly
five years after his arrest. 
The Syrian regime forces arrested al-Habali at the
Syrian-Lebanese border as he returned from a trip to
Lebanon on 18/08/2012. 
Al-Habali was born in al-Khalidiya neighborhood in
Homs in 1989. He is a key figure in the Syrian
revolution as he was one of the first media
professionals to use photography and filmmaking with
the start of the revolution.
In a statement to SCJF, Abdul Wahab Abu Ramez, al-Habali’s relative, confirmed that
al-Habali had died under torture in March 2015, but his mother contacted a lawyer
in May 2017 to know her son’s fate. The lawyer confirmed that al-Habali died in
Sednaya prison in March 2015.
Nabil Sharbaji
Osama al-Habali

!21
!
A member of the Syrian Journalists Association based in Turkey, Tariq Leila
(neume de Guerre), spoke to the SCJF giving his testimony of his experience in
the regime detention centres. He explained how he was arrested several times
during President Bashar al-Assad’s reign. Each time, he was tortured, and he is
a living example of what is happening to many of the detainees in the regime
detention centers and prisons. 
“I was arrested several times by the Syrian regime. I was arrested for the ﬁrst
time in 2000 by a security detachment while I was visiting a friend in Qatna
city in the suburb of Damascus,” Tariq explained. “I was arrested after a
conversation I had with someone on the public transport bus, during which I
showed my annoyance with Bashar al-Assad’s governance. This resulted in my
arrest and transfer to an unfamiliar place. I was put in a cell for 15 days, and
during this time, I spent ﬁve days in a defective bathroom that was full of
human waste. I was severely beaten and tortured (including Ghost and Flying
Carpet torture methods), and then I was released.”
Tariq Leila, A Living Example and Torture in the
Regime Detentions

!22
!
“My second detention was in 2004 while I was serving my mandatory military
service at the Signal School in al-Nabek, in Damascus countryside. The
inspection found a floppy disk among my belongings containing articles against
the Syrian regime and his [Bashar al-Assad’s] relatives from the Makhlouf
family. I was accused of terrorism, and the attempted assassination of one of
the officers in the military branch were I was serving. Members of the First
Office subordinate to the Political Security [intelligence services]. They
arrested me and took me to a cell in a building near the Palestine branch in
Damascus. There I was severely tortured throughout the period of detention
(the Ghost, the flying mat, electric shocks all over my body, breaking my left
hand’s finger, stabbing me with a sharp object all over my body). They directed
different accusations against me in the Political Security branch including
betraying the homeland, terrorism and disclosing information to the enemy and
other accusations. They used to call me the terrorist, saying ‘take the terrorist,
bring the terrorist’. I was released after one month and a few days. I went
directly to receive treatment for my right foot which was in terrible condition. It
was severely swollen due cigarettes being extinguished [on it] and the toenails
being pulled out. The treatment lasted for two months,” Tariq continued.

!23
!
 
He added, “In 2008, I was arrested for the third time for five days and held in
the State Security branch al-Zabadani in Damascus countryside. I was accused
of my relationship with the “Damascus Declaration” and my relationship with
some of the signatories. I was released after I signed a pledge not to contact
any political organizations hostile to the Baath Party. I was not transferred to
Damascus because I bribed the officer in charge with a large sum of money.”
 
He said that “With the start of the revolutionary movement in Syria, I was
working as a photographer in the Baladna newspaper team. And in 2013, I
arrested in the city of Homs while I was filming and communicating what was
happening in the city. I was put in a military prison under the ground where my
hands and feet were handcuffed for three days. I was then transferred to al-
Khatib Branch in Damascus (Branch 251). I stayed there for seven days, and I
was not physically tortured at the time. I signed a pledge not to repeat what I
did (filming).” 
 
Tariq ended his narrative with details of his last detention at the hands of the
Lebanese Hezbollah militia fighters. He said, “At the beginning of 2014, as I
was passing through a Hezbollah checkpoint in the al-Zabadani area, and they
found a camera and my press card. They searched through the photographs on
the camera and attacked me. They hit me hard on the head and my body. A
Hezbollah member stabbed me in the chest with a knife.” He added, “I was
tortured in a place near al-Sumeriya area. There one of the fighters cut the
frenulum [tissue connecting mouth and tongue] which caused my disability.
After that, I felt nothing as I was in coma and a state of unconsciousness. I was
released less than two weeks after I was detained. On 5/01/2015, I left Syria
for Turkey through a military faction that secured my exit via the coast. I
entered Turkish territory and I received the necessary medical treatment
[operation to repair the frenulum]. And so far, I still suffer from back pain and
continue my treatment.”

!24
!
International law absolutely and completely prohibits torture as it prohibits
slavery or genocide. Torture is not permissible under any circumstances,
including war, public emergency or terrorist threats. 
The power of this prohibition and the universal recognition of it, have made it a
fundamental principle of customary international law. This means that even
states that have not ratified any of the international treaties that explicitly
prohibit torture are prohibited from torturing any person in any place. This
prohibition cannot be restricted, whereby it cannot be limited or detracted from
in any circumstances or conditions. 
Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 states that: No
one shall be subjected to torture, nor to punishment, cruelty, inhuman or
degrading treatment. In addition to this, the prohibition on practicing torture
and other forms of ill-treatment is embedded in a number of international and
regional treaties in the field of human rights. 
Mervat Rishmawi, a Palestinian human rights consultant specialized in the
issue of human rights in the Arab countries, said that acts are considered acts
of torture when committed by a government official in his or her official
capacity, or inciting on their perpetration, or overlooking the practices.  
Accordingly, it is not only the person who commits such acts directly, but even
persons who have not committed the acts directly can be held accountable. The
persons who advise, issue the orders to torture, express his/her consent to the
orders issued or acts committed or had knowledge of the torture occurring but
did not intervene to stop the perpetrator is considered to have tortured. 
Torture is a serious crime, so international law provides for a clear responsibility
on states to either extradite those accused of committing torture or to
Conclusion: Description and recommendations 
Syrian Center for Freedom of Journalism

!25
!
criminally prosecute them under Article 7 of the Convention against Torture. In
addition, international human rights law jurists, international humanitarian law
jurists, and legal jurists agree that crimes relating to torture are serious crimes
that can never be subject to a statute of limitations, in this torture resembles
war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
 
It should also be noted that Article 7 of the Rome Statute of the International
Criminal Court provides that torture is a crime against humanity if committed as
part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian
population with knowledge of the attack. Furthermore, Article 8 provides that
torture and other forms of ill-treatment constitute war crimes when committed
as part of a broad plan, policy or campaign to commit these types of crimes.  
The 2012 constitution promogulated by the Syrian regime, states in Article No.
53 that no one may be tortured or subjected to degrading treatment, but this
provision remains ink on paper as do all other legal provisions criminalizing the
various violations that have occurred and continue to occur against civilians,
especially media professionals. Media professionals have suffered the gravest
violations and crimes at the hands of the state bodies that are supposed to be
entrusted with implementing the constitution and laws.
 
In this regard, Syrian lawyer Mustapha Mesto says that “what the Syrian
regime is doing is a crime against humanity and a war crime because it ﬁrst
arrested media professionals and citizen journalists, and secondly tortured
them with all kinds of brutal torture methods. The Syrian authorities’ practices
against media professionals are part of a clear and direct violation of all
international laws, conventions and agreements that call for the protection of
media professionals and their right to practice their profession without
harassment. These practices violate Syrian laws such as Article 7 of the Syrian
Media Law which stipulates that “The law protects media freedom and that the
information and opinion published by a media professional cannot be grounds
to violate his/her freedom.” 

!26
!
For these reasons and on the occasion of the International Day in Support of
Victims of Torture, the SCJF in the SJA present the following recommendations:
 
1-Activate international laws and conventions that guarantee media freedom
and the protection of media professionals. 
2 -Activate the Convention against Torture, prosecute and hold accountable the
perpetrators of torture in accordance with universal jurisdiction as the referral
of the Syrian ﬁle to the International Criminal Court faces the problem of the
veto decision in the Security Council. 
3- Emphasis that no one has impunity. 
4 - Pressure the Syrian regime and oblige it to implement an international
decision to allow the entrance of inspection missions to all prisons, detention
centers- secret and public, security headquarters and branches and seek to stop
all the acts of torture committed. 
The SCJF calls for the release of all journalists and media activists from
detention. It calls on all the parties and actors active on Syrian soil to respect
the freedom of press and media work and to ensure the safety of the media
professionals.

Exclusive report

Recommandé

Recommandé

Contenu connexe

Tendances

Tendances (8)

Similaire à Exclusive report

Similaire à Exclusive report (20)

Plus de ibrahim hussien

Plus de ibrahim hussien (8)

Dernier

Dernier (20)

Exclusive report