Syria: Medicine as a Weapon of Persecution, Testimony No. 5

TRANSCRIPT:"I was injured in December. I was arrestedduring a demonstration against the president.I was detained and tortured for fifteen days.The last day,they put a photo of Bashar Al Assad in front of me,and told me to kneel to 'God Bashar'.I told them I only kneel to God,and I tore the photo.They went crazy,as if I was tearing out their soul.So they took me to the colonel,after having beaten me.They tied my hands behind my backand took me to see the colonel who insulted me.Then he said, 'Don't you know that thosewho insult the president have their hands cut off?'He kicked me,and I fell from the top of the stairs.Then they blindfolded me and spread and tied my arms, like a crucifix.In detention, they hang us from the ceilingand insulted us and beat us constantly.Some people had their fingernails torn out.Others were flogged or had their backs broken.They make people lie on a special board,and then lifted the sides until their backs crack.They used all sorts of methods.They broke my toes with a hammer.They taped a detonator with TNT to my hand,the detonator was attachedto a long wire connected to a battery.Then they sent an electric currentand it exploded. I lost three fingers,two-thirds of my other two fingers,along with most of the palm of my hand.Yes, they took me to hospital.They left me there like I was a dog.The level of care wasn't good, and the doctorswere very pessimistic about my hand.It was completely deformed.Even the doctors I saw laterdidn't have the means to treat such a wound.I could not sleepfor twenty-five days because of the pain.Even sleeping pills couldn't make me sleep.At hospital, they just stopped the bleeding.Then my friends cameand helped me escape through the back door.If security had seen me,they'd have killed me.There was a lot of torture in detention.There were 230 of us crammed into a small room.There were old people and doctors amongst us.I asked a doctor how he came to be there.He replied, 'Just like you, son.' "