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Secret Assad Files Show Syria Put Children on Trial

(Sunday Times-UK) Louise Callaghan - Secret intelligence documents uncovered by the Sunday Times in Syria have revealed the terrifying extent of Bashar al-Assad's surveillance state, where family members spied on each other and the slightest suspicion could result in ordinary people - including children - being swept into a network of prisons notorious for torture and executions, with victims buried in mass graves. Thousands of files detail the way the regime infiltrated protest and rebel groups since 2011. They reveal details about the vast network of informants that reported to the regime, and how the intelligence services forced the people they arrested to give up names of alleged collaborators - who would in turn be detained. The security services tapped phones, hacked computers and sent agents to surveil suspects. One document notes the detention of a 12-year-old boy, brought in "for tearing up a sheet of paper bearing a picture of the president." The boy claimed that he had torn up the paper without noticing the picture of the president. He told interrogators he didn't have bad intentions and didn't intend to offend anyone. Nonetheless, he was sent to stand trial in court.
2024-12-29 00:00:00
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