The 81-page report titled 'Torture Archipelago: Arbitrary Arrests, Torture and Enforced Disappearances in Syria's Underground Prisons since March 2011' is based on more than 200 interviews conducted by Human Rights Watch since the beginning of anti-government demonstrations in Syria in March 2011.
The report includes maps locating the detention facilities, video accounts from former detainees and sketches of torture techniques described by numerous people who witnessed or experienced torture in these facilities.
The rights group called on the UN Security Council to refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and to adopt targeted sanctions against officials credibly implicated in the abuses.
"The intelligence agencies are running an archipelago of
torture centers scattered across the country," said Ole Solvang, emergencies researcher at Human Rights Watch.
"By publishing their locations, describing the torture methods, and identifying those in charge we are putting those responsible on notice that they will have to answer for these horrific crimes."
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Almost all the former detainees interviewed by Human Rights Watch said they had been subjected to torture or witnessed the torture of others during their detention.
Interrogators, guards, and officers used a broad range of torture methods, including prolonged beatings, often with objects such as batons and cables, holding the detainees in painful stress positions for prolonged periods of time, the use of electricity, burning with acid, sexual assault and humiliation, the pulling of fingernails, and mock execution.
In all, Human Rights Watch documented more than 20 distinct torture methods used by the security and intelligence services.
A 31-year-old detainee who was detained in Idlib governorate in June told Human Rights Watch about the torture he suffered at the hands of the intelligence agencies in the Idlib Central Prison.
"They forced me to undress. Then they started squeezing my fingers with pliers. They put staples in my fingers, chest and ears. I was only allowed to take them out if I spoke.
"The staples in the ears were the most painful. They used two wires hooked up to a car battery to give me electric shocks... They tortured me like this three times over three days," he said. (More)