IV. Treatment of Detainees

Incommunicado Detention

In preparing this report, Human Rights Watch interviewed 30 Kurdish activists detained between 2005 and 2009 but subsequently released. All of them told Human Rights Watch that they were initially held incommunicado while detained at the security branches. It was only after the security services transferred them to ordinary prisons—sometimes after a few months—that they were able to inform their families of their whereabouts. Security services impose this initial period of incommunicado detention on all political and human rights activists, not just Kurdish ones.[145]

A member of the KDP-S detained for three months in the Palestine Branch of Military Intelligence described a common situation:

At the Palestine Branch, they did not allow any visits. Only when I was transferred to the central prison in Qamishli, and after my wife tried five times to see me, and my young children begged them, did they allow them to visit me for 10 minutes.[146]

Many detainees told Human Rights Watch about their anguish during these initial months of detention. A PYD member detained in January 2009 by Military Intelligence told Human Rights Watch,

We were completely isolated from the outside world: no newspapers—not even the pro-government ones,no radio, no form of any communication, and no visits.[147]

This anguish was shared by most families of the detainees. A relative of a Kurdish activist detained since March 2009, told Human Rights Watch in June 2009 that she still did not know where their family member was:

There are rumors, often contradictory, but nothing certain. We know that Military Intelligence detained him from the street while he was waiting for a taxi and transferred him to their branch in Hasake and later to Qamishli. From there, we don’t know. Some people tell us that he is probably at the Palestine Branch in Damascus but I don’t know. I can’t even go ask for him at the security branches because they would kick me out.[148]

 

Torture, Ill-Treatment, Detention Conditions

Out of the 30 former detainees interviewed by Human Rights Watch, 12 have said that security forces tortured them. According to these testimonies, the security services that have committed torture include Political Security (the branches in `Ain Arab and Aleppo), Military Intelligence (the Palestine Branch), State Security, and Air Force Intelligence, as well as Military Police (in Qamishli) and prison guards in Sednaya prison. Information gathered reflects a pattern of security services reserving their harshest treatment for lower-ranked activists, especially PYD members. In some cases violence was meted out when the detainee was not under interrogation.

The most common form of torture used by the security forces is beatings and kicking on all parts of the body, especially beatings on the soles of the feet (falqa). A member of the PYD described the torture he endured while detained by Political Security in `Ain `Arab in May 2006:

They tortured me physically and emotionally. The physical torture began from the moment I arrived at the branch. The officer who heads the branch beat me personally. His men tied my legs to a Russian rifle, and the officer beat me on my feet with a whip. The beating covered various parts of my body. He would insult and threaten me and insult the Kurds. He found a notebook in my pocket where I had written the name of the town by its Kurdish name, Kobani, which the regime had changed to `Ain `Arab, so he hit me with more than 100 lashes saying, “Damn you and damn Kobani. Why don’t you write `Ain `Arab?” The torture lasted for almost six hours of on-off beatings.

The next day, they transferred me to the political security branch in Aleppo. When I arrived there, they beat me and kicked me. The day after that, the investigation started. Whenever the investigator would not get the answers he wanted from me, he would refer me to some people for beating.[149]

Another Kurdish activist detained following the crackdown on the November 2, 2007 protest in Qamishli (see chapter II) reported that Military Police interrogators in Qamishli tortured him in November 2007 to force him to confess:

They gathered us in the basement of Criminal Security for the first night, where they beat us. They then transferred us to Military Police in Qamishli, where security guards tortured us. The first 12 days in detention were very difficult. They [Military Police] repeated the investigation with me four times and would make me put my fingerprints on a piece of paper, while my hands were tied behind my back and my eyes were covered. They would keep insulting us and calling us traitors and agents for the US. Two of the torturers would drag me on the floor while two others would beat me with a cable. They would do this along the 20 meters that separated the office where the investigation took place from my detention cell. They also tortured the others who were with me, until five people confessed that I had incited them to demonstrate and given them the order to throw stones at members of the security services.[150]

Interrogators used a number of devices to immobilize detainees and facilitate the beatings. A Kurdish activist detained by Political Security in June 2005 described to Human Rights Watch the dulab (“tire”), a common form of torture where security forces make a victim lie down and bend his knees and then place a car tire around his legs to keep the bottom of his feet exposed:

They put me in the tire, and four guards starting beating me with cables and batons. The head officer was kicking me on my head and face with his shoe. They would also suspend me from the wall for long periods of time.[151]

Another detainee told Human Rights Watch how Political Security tortured him in May 2006 after tying him to a rectangular wooden plank known as the “flying carpet” (bsat al-reeh):

At night, they would bring two planks of wood, which they called the daff (tambour). I understood that this was the “flying carpet” that I had heard about. They would tie my arms to the longer side of the plank and my legs (at the level of the shinbone) to the narrower part. On each side of the planks, there are metal rings tied to each other. The pain caused by the pulling is a lot harder to bear than the beating. The pain is mostly centered on the bones of the legs and the spinal cord. Then they would beat you on various parts of your body. After a while, they would untie me, and ask me to do some physical exercise to have the blood circulate again and then they would repeat the beatings.[152]

A number of detainees mentioned that security services would force them to stand for long periods of time. A political activist detained in October 2008 for a period of three months at the Palestine Branch of Military Intelligence described this method:

If the investigator was not convinced by what I said, the guards would take me to the “torture square,” where they would make me stand on my feet for long days with my hands tied behind my back and my eyes covered with a black cloth. I was made to stand for 11 days with only brief periods of rest for 10 minutes, to eat. If I would fall due to lack of sleep ... they would throw cold water on me and beat me with cables. I developed many illnesses because of this torture. Tests I had done after my release showed that I had inflamed joints as well as infections in the stomach, kidneys, and chest.[153]

Another common form of torture described by detainees is sleep deprivation. A detainee described his detention at the Aleppo branch of Political Security in June and July 2006:  “They took me to the solitary cell. Every time they [the security guards] would come, they would wake me up with cold water and order me to stand.”[154] 

A 55-year-old man detained over the November 2, 2007 protest in Qamishli told Human Rights Watch a harrowing tale of passing out during interrogation while detained by Military Police in Qamishli and finding out when he woke up that the security services had pulled out three of his toenails:

Security guards took us to a dark basement. They beat and insulted us and later transferred us to another detention cell, which was overcrowded. For over two hours the investigator beat me on my head with his boots. On the fourth day they changed the investigator. I think his title was Abu Shaker. This time they beat me with a metal rod, and I finally passed out. When I woke up, they had pulled [out] three of my toenails.[155]

The detainee held by Aleppo Political Security in June-July 2006 also reported being threatened with permanent injury: “They also threatened me with electricity. The officer in charge told the night guard, ‘When I come back tomorrow I want to hear that he either confessed or is disfigured.’”[156]

Another activist described how the head of the Palestine Branch—where he had spent three months at the end of 2008—beat him with a large cable while he was being transferred to another prison:

There was no interrogation. I was being taken from the office of the director [of the Palestine Branch] to the car that would transfer me to the jail in Qamishli. The prison director took a large cable and started beating me on my back and insulting me while I walked the 20 meters to the car. I felt like my heart and liver were going to come out of my mouth. I finally passed out when I got to the car.[157]

Fourteen of the former detainees interviewed by Human Rights Watch described appalling detention conditions, and complained about overcrowding, lack of hygiene, and other problems.[158] One activist who was detained at a branch of Military Intelligence known as the “Syrianic branch” complained that “we were so many in the cell, we could not lie down. We had to sit the whole time—for six full days.”[159] At least seven of the former detainees told Human Rights Watch that security forces forced them to wear only their underwear during interrogation and sometimes even in their cell.[160] One detainee said that he spent 45 days at Political Security in Aleppo “almost naked, with the exception of my underwear.”[161]

A Kurdish activist described the detention conditions in Military Intelligence in Qamishli:

We were in an underground cell with no air or sun. We had no recreation time to go out and get fresh air. I developed skin rashes. I had one blanket in winter, which was full of fleas and insects that would bite. We were forbidden to speak to anyone else in the cell, as any person who spoke was beaten and insulted.[162]

Other activists complained about the Palestine Branch of Military Intelligence, where many spent time. “There were flies in the cell, as well as many insects and cockroaches. There are no health services. I still suffer from back pains due to the cold.”[163]

In addition to physical torture and ill-treatment, 18 Kurdish activists told Human Rights Watch that security services insulted them and treated them in a degrading manner. Many of them were too embarrassed to repeat the insults: “They insulted my mother, sister, and wife, using words I would be ashamed of repeating.”[164] Another told us that his guards kept repeating, “All Kurds are traitors. You are a heavy guest in Syria.”[165]

Trials by Military Court

Of the 30 formerly detained Kurdish activists interviewed by Human Rights Watch, 18 of them had been referred to Military Courts for prosecution.[166] Such referrals are possible because the Emergency Law, in place in Syria since 1963, states that those violating the orders of the martial law governor shall be brought before a military court.[167]

A full analysis of the military court system in Syria is beyond the scope of this report.[168] A number of Kurdish detainees highlighted some shortcomings in access to lawyers or the ability to call witnesses.[169] However, according to most of those interviewed, the problem is not in the procedures but in the substance of the trials. A Kurdish activist who was referred to a military court after participating in the November 2, 2007 demonstrations summed it up as follows: “The form of the process is generally legal, with lawyers and representatives of some of the foreign embassies present in the court, but the substance of the trial—the charges presented—is driven by the security apparatus.”[170]

The accusation that the security services controlled the outcome of the trial was echoed by at least three other detainees who told Human Rights Watch that the security services guided the military courts and, as one put it, “There are no fair trials for activists and politicians in Syria.”[171] While Human Rights Watch cannot substantiate the claims of direct interference, as we note in chapter I it is clear that Syria’s prosecution authorities have at their disposal criminal provisions that are so broadly articulated that the courts are able to punish a range of peaceful activities and free expression. Where the provisions include no requirement for proving the elements of an offense, such as “inciting sectarian strife,” the judge and prosecutor have complete discretion in applying the provisions in an arbitrary and subjective manner to any activity of which they disapprove.