Syrian Government 'Systematically' Killed 11,000 Detainees, According To New Report
A report written by three former prosecutors at the criminal tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Sierra Leone was released today to The Guardian and CNN.
The prosecutors examined thousands of Syrian government photographs and files recording the deaths, which was given to them by a defector known only as "Caesar."
"Caesar" was reportedly a photographer with the Syrian military police, whose job it was to "take pictures of killed detainees."
While "Caesar" was not witness to executions or torture, he described a bureaucratic system for killing. Here's what the report had to say:
The procedure was that when detainees were killed at their places of detention their bodies would be taken to a military hospital to which he would be sent with a doctor and a member of the judiciary, Caesar's function being to photograph the corpses … There could be as many as 50 bodies a day to photograph which require 15 to 30 minutes of work per corpse...
"Caesar" and the evidence he handed over was carefully examined by the team of prosecutors, who determined the defector to be a credible witness with no indications that he was either "sensational" or "partisan."
It should be noted that the report was ultimated funded by the anti-Assad Government of Qatar.