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Widespread Complaints of Extortion and Abuses Against Detainees in Security Centers, Judicial Record Laden with Concerns
Complaints have surged from citizens across multiple Syrian governorates reporting extortion and exploitation practices inside some security detention centers, where detainees’ relatives are often forced to pay money or bribes for basic procedures such as delivering medication, allowing visits, or obtaining information about their loved ones’ whereabouts. Testimonies submitted to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights indicate that demanded sums sometimes reached hundreds of dollars.
The testimonies also describe ill-treatment in several detention facilities, including severe overcrowding in cells, detention conditions lacking minimum humanitarian standards, provision of poor and insufficient food, and verbal abuse and humiliating language directed at some detainees.
These violations are particularly alarming given that many detainees have not yet been questioned or tried, and therefore retain the presumption of innocence. The Observatory reported that some detentions appear linked to malicious complaints exploited to settle personal disputes or achieve gains at the expense of innocent people.
The impact is not limited to detention centers: public grievances extend to the judiciary, where mounting accusations of injustices and procedures that do not always adhere to standards of fairness and the rule of law exacerbate citizens’ loss of trust in institutions meant to safeguard their rights and freedoms.
The continuation of these practices entrenches a climate of impunity and leaves citizens hostage to influence and corruption instead of consolidating the rule of law that Syrians have demanded.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights stresses that transitional justice cannot be selective or targeted at specific groups; it must encompass all perpetrators of crimes and violations, regardless of position or affiliation, and ensure accountability for those involved in corruption, torture, extortion, and rights abuses. The Observatory further emphasizes that genuine justice is not served by punishing the weak, dissenters, or victims, but by holding responsible officials to account, ensuring no one escapes scrutiny, upholding the presumption of innocence, and protecting detainees’ legal rights so that justice is comprehensive and real rather than mere rhetoric applied only to the public while perpetrators evade punishment.
