This report focuses on the experience of 65 torture survivors interviewed by Amnesty International. It charts their journeys through what many, such as the UN Commission of Inquiry, consider to be Syria’s most lethal detention facilities, including the detention centres operated by Syria’s four intelligence services – Air Force Intelligence, Military Intelligence, Political Security and General Intelligence – and Saydnaya (also spelt Sednaya) Military Prison. In doing so, it reveals the changing patterns of torture and other ill-treatment that detainees face through the phases of arrest, interrogation by intelligence services and imprisonment. It also shows the challenges faced by those who survive the ordeal following release.

The research for this report took place between December 2015 and May 2016.