Country: Syrian Arab Republic Source: Syrian Network for Human Rights Please refer to the attached files. Damascus – June 26, 2025The Syrian Network for Human Rights released its annual report on the occasion of the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, highlighting one of the most horrific systematic crimes to which Syrians have been subjected since March 2011. The 2025 report comes at a pivotal moment following the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime on December 8, 2024, and the subsequent revelation of new information through official documents and records, as well as contact with thousands of families, which revealed to us the deaths of large numbers of forcibly disappeared persons in regime detention centers. This has led to a significant increase in the documented number of victims who died under torture or in inhumane detention conditions, according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights database.Over the course of fourteen years, the network has documented the torture and abuses suffered by detainees in official and unofficial detention centers run by the Bashar al-Assad regime. It has built a massive database based on the testimonies of thousands of survivors and relatives of victims, supported by visual and documentary evidence. This database serves as a primary reference in numerous international investigations and mechanisms.Data on victims who died under torture since March 2011, distributed according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights databaseThe report indicated that the year 2025 witnessed a significant increase in the number of documented victims of torture in Syria, primarily due to the availability of thousands of data from testimonies, documents, and evidence that revealed the deaths of tens of thousands of forcibly disappeared persons in previous periods. Their deaths were confirmed through official documents, data from civil registry offices, reports from detention centers, and testimonies from survivors inside those centers, following the collapse of the security system that had systematically withheld this information.According to the network's documentation, at least 29,959 people were recorded killed as a result of torture in 2025, bringing the total number of victims from March 2011 to June 2025 to 45,342, including 225 children and 116 women.Most of these deaths date back to the period between 2011 and 2014, which marked the peak of the campaign of arrests and enforced disappearances. The network's data also shows that at least 181,244 individuals, including 5,332 children and 9,201 women, remain detained or forcibly disappeared in detention centers run by various entities inside Syria between March 2011 and June 2025. Of these, at least 177,021 individuals, including 4,536 children and 8,984 women, are classified as forcibly disappeared. Statistics confirm that the vast majority of those arrested were detained for their participation in the popular movement and were arbitrarily detained without any fair legal or judicial procedures.Bashar al-Assad's regime is responsible for more than 99% of deaths due to tortureThe data revealed that more than 99% of deaths under torture (45,032 out of 45,342) occurred within detention centers run by the former regime, which used torture as a systematic tool of repression within an official policy encompassing the four main security agencies: Air Force Intelligence, Military Security, State Security, and Political Security, in addition to civilian and military prisons and unofficial detention centers.SNHR documented the use of at least 72 torture methods, ranging from beatings, electric shocks, waterboarding, stress positions, solitary confinement, deprivation of food and healthcare, and sexual violence. These methods affected all groups, including children, women, the elderly, and people with disabilities.According to the report's analysis of the distribution of torture victims across Syrian governorates, Daraa, Rif Dimashq, Hama, and Homs topped the list. The report also indicated that regional affiliation was often a factor in the practice of torture, with regime personnel torturing victims based on their affiliation with opposition-held areas as part of collective revenge operations.Documentation through "Caesar" photosThrough leaked photos from military hospitals, known as the "Caesar photos," the network was able to identify 1,017 victims, the majority of whom were arrested in 2012 and 2013. The data showed that the largest number of victims was documented in Branch 227 (the Area Branch), which recorded 382 victims, followed by Branch 215 (the Raid and Assault Brigade) with 300 victims. Both were among the most prominent centers of deadly torture under the Assad regime.