\nAMNESTY INTERNAL\n<\/p>\n
\nPUBLIC STATEMENT\n<\/p>\n
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>15 <\/span>June 2011\n<\/p>\n \nSyria: Evidence of deaths in custody after Tell Kalakh \nNew information gathered by Amnesty International in recent \nAccording to testimonies Amnesty International has obtained, \nBrothers Majd and So’dat al-Kurdy, brothers Abd al-Rahman \nThe eight men had left their family homes and gone into \nAccording to the reports, all eight men were sheltering \nSo’dat al-Kurdy and Ahmed Abu Libdeh ran down to check on \nAs they lay on the floor, it is alleged that the soldiers \nAround two weeks later, family members were contacted by the \nAmnesty International has interviewed people who attended \nTwo witnesses interviewed separately by Amnesty \nThose attending the funerals reportedly refrained from \nThe circumstances of the deaths of the eight men remain unclear. \nGiven reports of torture and other ill-treatment and deaths \nBackground\n<\/p>\n \nMass arrests took place in Tell Kalakh on 16 and 17 May when \nIn the past two weeks, a number of men have been released \nSyria: Evidence of deaths in custody after Tell Kalakh \nNew information gathered by Amnesty International in recent
\narrests<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n
\ndays indicates that eight men whose bodies were delivered to their families at
\nthe end of May died in custody after being apprehended during last month’s
\nmilitary crackdown on the western town of Tell Kalakh<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n
\nthe bodies of the eight men bore marks which suggested that they may have been
\ntortured or that their corpses were mutilated after death<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n
\nand Ahmed Abu Libdeh, Mohamed Adel Halloum, Kifah Haidar, Oqba al-Sha’ar and
\nMohamed al-Rajab – mostly in their twenties – were reportedly seized by the
\nSyrian military on 17 May along with scores of other men during a military
\noperation against Tell Kalakh that began on 14 May<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n
\nhiding after seeing soldiers seizing and beating other men in their
\nneighbourhoods the day before, relatives and friends have said<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n
\nupstairs in a house in the al-Sharqi neighbourhood of Tell Kalakh, close to the
\nborder with Lebanon, when soldiers arrived at the door and ordered them to come
\nout. Majd al-Kurdy, Abd al-Rahman Abu Libdeh, Mohamed Adel Halloum and Mohamed
\nal-Rajab apparently decided to give themselves up and told their friends to
\nstay behind. As they opened the door, it appears that the soldiers opened fire,
\nwounding Majd al-Kurdy on his hand and Abd al-Rahman Abu Libdeh in his
\nshoulder. Mohamed Adel Halloum and Mohamed al-Rajab fell on the floor but it
\nwas unclear if they were also wounded<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>. <\/span>\n<\/p>\n
\ntheir brothers, along with Kifah Haidar and Oqba al-Sha’ar. According to the
\nreports received, they were also shot at and fell to the ground. It is not
\nclear whether they were all hit by bullets or whether some were merely seeking
\ncover, but Ahmed Abu Libdeh appeared to lie unconscious on the floor having been
\nshot in the waist<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>. <\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n
\nbeat them with their rifles despite their wounds and pleas to stop. The
\nsoldiers then apparently dragged them outside the house while continuing to
\nbeat them and then bound their hands with plastic ties and blindfolded them,
\nbefore taking them away<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n
\nauthorities via local officials to present themselves at a military hospital in
\nHoms to identify the corpses of the eight men. They were reportedly offered no
\nexplanation regarding the circumstances of the men’s deaths when they did so.
\nShortly afterwards, the corpses were returned to their families for burial in
\nnylon sacks. The bodies of Majd and So’dat al-Kurdy were handed over to their
\nfamily and buried on 29 May; those of Abd al-Rahman and Ahmed Abu Libdeh on 30
\nMay; those of Kifah Haidar, Mohamed Adel Halloum and Oqba al-Sha’ar on 31 May;
\nand that of Mohamed al-Rajab in early June<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>. <\/span>\n<\/p>\n
\nthe funerals and they have separately given similar accounts about the corpses,
\nwhich they saw at least partly naked because mourners had opened the nylon
\nsacks they were wrapped in to see the state of them. The bodies of both Majd
\nand So’dat al-Kurdy apparently had cuts to the chests and long vertical slashes
\non the thighs, as well as what seemed to be gunshot wounds on the back of the
\nlegs. Majd al-Kurdy’s penis was cut off, according to three witnesses, one of
\nwhom saw his body as the coffin was placed outside his grandparents’ home and
\nthe other two as it was being prepared for burial at the cemetery<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n
\nInternational described the skin on the right side of Kifah Haidar’s face as
\nlooking as if it had been burned or torn off and what appeared to be a bullet
\nwound to his chest. The bodies of Mohamed Adel Halloum and Abd al-Rahman Abu
\nLibdeh were both scarred by what seemed to be at least one cut by a sharp
\ninstrument to the chest<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>. <\/span>\n<\/p>\n
\nwashing the bodies in accordance with Islamic ritual beforehand as they were
\nalready decomposing and, in some cases, were being eaten by worms<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n
\nIt appears as if most, if not all, of the men were apprehended alive, although
\nwounded, in some cases seriously, by the Syrian military on 17 May and were
\nnext seen dead by their families in a military hospital in Homs nearly two
\nweeks later<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>. <\/span>\n<\/p>\n
\nin custody in suspicious circumstances elsewhere in Syria over recent weeks,
\nAmnesty International is seriously concerned that the men died as a result of
\ntorture or other ill-treatment or that their bodies were mutilated after death.
\nThese and other reports must be investigated fully, impartially and
\nindependently and anyone found responsible brought to justice<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n
\nthe Syrian military, accompanied by security forces, entered the town and
\nconducted house-to-house searches. Some were also arrested at checkpoints on
\nroutes out of the town from which people were fleeing<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n
\nand have returned to Tell Kalakh but others remain in incommunicado detention<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\narrests<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n
\ndays indicates that eight men whose bodies were delivered to their families at
\nthe end of May died in custody after being apprehended during last month’s
\nmilitary crackdown on the western town of Tell Kalakh<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}