Hundreds Tortured in Syria, Human Rights Group Says - NYTimes.com

Hundreds Tortured in Syria, Human Rights Group Says - NYTimes.com

clipped from article: BEIRUT, Lebanon — The Syrian government said Thursday that it had released more than 500 prisoners who were not involved in “terrorist” acts. A human rights group said, meanwhile, that it had compiled evidence that thousands of other detainees were languishing in government prisons and secret detention centers where, the group said, torture was routine. The group, Avaaz, also said that its researchers had gathered the names of at least 617 people who had died under torture in government installations since the beginning of the uprising against Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad.

The group’s estimate of the number of the detainees — 37,000 — was more than double the tally provided by the Local Coordination Committees, another activist group, which said Thursday that it had documented the cases of more than 16,000 detainees. With journalists rarely allowed to travel around Syria freely since the unrest started, it was impossible to confirm either report.

Arab League observers currently in Syria are supposed to monitor promises by the government to release political prisoners. The observers, however, are not allowed to visit military sites, where rights groups believe that the government has transferred hundreds of detainees to hide them from the observers.

The Syrian state news agency said Thursday that the government had released almost 4,000 prisoners since Nov. 5, “all of whom were not involved in the shedding of Syrian blood.”

Opposition groups continue to contend that the observers have been ineffective, failing to win the release of enough prisoners, the withdrawal of government tanks and artillery from many cities or an end to the bloodshed. [ read more at link]