Up to 13,000 secretly hanged in Syrian jail, says Amnesty International

Between 5,000 and 13,000 people were executed in the Syrian military prison at Saydnaya between 2011 and 2015, according to a report published on Tuesday by rights group Amnesty International (AI), Deutsche Welle reports.

The majority of the victims were civilians who had denounced the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Amnesty said.

The report, entitled " Human slaughterhouse: Mass hangings and extermination at Saydnaya prison, Syria" was corroborated with 84 witness and expert accounts, including prison guards, former prisoners, judges and lawyers.

"Between 2011 and 2015, Saydnaya saw mass executions that came to total around 50 people per week," AI's General Secretary in Germany, Markus N. Beeko, said,

The executions were reportedly authorized by the Syrian government, with military tribunals taking just minutes before prisoners were sentenced to death.

"These major systematic violations in human rights mean that we are dealing with cases of crimes against humanity," Beeko said.

On the basis of the released report the rights group has turned to the UN calling to launch as investigation over the mass executions in the Syrian jail.