United Nations investigators say they have collected evidence of widespread torture and execution of detainees by the regime of Bashar al-Assad and several anti-government armed groups fighting in Syria, and that these acts amount to crimes against humanity.
In a report to the U.N. Human Rights Council, published Monday, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic detailed the findings of an investigation over more than four years, which included hundreds of interviews with former detainees, family members of the deceased, and former regime functionaries.
“Massive and systematized violence including the killing of detainees in official and makeshift detention centers has taken place out of sight, far from the battlefield,” a summary of the report said.
“The government has committed the crimes against humanity of extermination, murder, rape or other forms of sexual violence, torture, imprisonment, enforced disappearance and other inhuman acts,” it added.
