Syria Says Amnesty Report on Mass Killing Devoid of Truth

Syria denied as false and politically-motivated an Amnesty International report claiming that Syrian military police carried out mass hangings over the course of five years.

In a statement published on Tuesday, the Syrian Justice Ministry rejected the account of mass hangings at Saydnaya prison as bogus and devoid of truth, saying such claims are meant to ruin the government’s reputation in the international community.

According to the report, about 5,000 to 13,000 people were executed at Saydnaya prison near Damascus between 2011 and 2015.

The statement further emphasized that based on Syrian law, death sentences are handed only after judicial trials run through several degrees of litigation.

Such allegations come in the face of recent gains by Syrian army forces and allied popular defense groups in battles against foreign-sponsored Takfiri terrorists, and the atmosphere of national reconciliation in the country, it added.