Syrian rebels tortured, executed prisoners, says Human Rights Watch report

Tied to a cross face down and whipped with cables for hours on end, a detainee held by Syrian rebel forces endured numerous beatings over a period of 25 days, according to a report released by an international human rights group on Monday.

Beaten every “two or three days” by five men, the detainee said the Syrian opposition fighters wanted him to admit to killing several people with a knife.

“The first time they hit me for about an hour,” he told officials with U.S.-based Human Rights Watch who were on a fact-finding mission in August. “The third time they hit me from early in the morning until noon.”

Human Rights Watch report

He eventually confessed to the murders despite having not done them.

Monday’s report called for the end to the use of torture and execution in the northern provinces of Idlib and Aleppo and the coastal region of Latakia by the Free Syrian Army (FSA).

Source and full story: Toronto Star, 17 Sept 2012