Amnesty report: Syria secretly hanged 13,000 in prison
Syria secretly carried out mass hangings since 2011 in a prison north of Damascus known to detainees as "the slaughterhouse," an Amnesty Report said. Between 20 to 50 people were hanged each week at the Saydnaya Prison, authorized by President Bashar Assad and senior officials. According to the report, the killings are a "calculated campaign of extrajudicial execution." Since 2011, the Amnesty also found that 17,000 people died due to torture in Syria's detention facilities. The organization recognized more than 35 forms of torture and ill-treatment in Syria since the 1980s.