Former detainees in Syrian prisons have filed a lawsuit against 17 prominent figures linked to the Assad regime, accusing them of torture in prisons and of violating human rights.

Thirteen former detainees filed the lawsuit to the Public Prosecutor General of the Federal Court of Justice in Germany, supported by human rights organizations and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

The plaintiffs accused officers in the Syrian army, officials in the National Security Office, and officers in the Syrian Intelligence Services, of torture and violating human rights in Sednaya Prison, near Damascus, and Mazzeh Prison in Damascus, according to Amnesty International.

Many Syrian lawyers helped in filing the case, according to Antonie Nord, Director of the Middle East Office of the Heinrich Boll Foundation.

The German independent political foundation supported the lawsuit and urged for international help to stop Assad’s regime violations of human rights in Syrian prisons.

The Horror in Assad’s regime-controlled prisons

Many of Assad’s regime-controlled prisons in Syria are known for having high numbers of deaths, especially Sednaya Prison. One former guard for the prison described the prison as “the end of life, the end of humanity”, according to Amnesty International.

Amnesty International also reported that an average of 20 to 50 people were hanged to death each week at the military prison, and 5,000 and 13,000 people were executed during September 2011 and December 2015.

To this day, detainees are still being transferred to Saydnaya Prison and many other Assad-controlled prisons inside Syria, with the numbers of mass deaths resulting from extrajudicial executions continuing to increase.