NAN-F-16
Report
Beirut, Feb. 8, 2017 (dpa/NAN) Syria on Wednesday dismissed a report by Amnesty International, accusing the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of hanging up to 13,000 people in a prison near the capital Damascus for over five years.
The Ministry of Justice said in a statement that was issued on Wednesday that the Amnesty report was not “based on concrete evidence, rather on sentiments seeking to achieve certain political goals.”
The rights watchdog had said on Tuesday that secret mass hangings were carried out under a “calculated campaign of extrajudicial executions” by al-Assad’s government at the Saydnaya prison.
“Up to 13,000 prisoners were executed in the prison from 2011 to 2015 following convictions by military courts after forced confessions, Amnesty said.
The report by the watchdog was titled “Human Slaughterhouse: Mass Hangings and Extermination at Saydnaya Prison.”
According to the statement, “only seeks to slander Syria in international circles following the Syrian Army’s victories over terrorists and the reconciliations taking place around the country.
In December 2016, government forces, backed by allied Russian air power, forced rebels out of the eastern section of Aleppo and retook full control of the northern city.
The breakthrough marked al-Assad’s biggest victory in a conflict of almost six years. (dpa/NAN)
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Edited by Celine-Damilola Oyewole/Sadiya Hamza