Gen. Kamal Hassan between 2017 and 2020, located in Damascus, notorious for accounts of torture, coercive interrogation, and deplorable conditions related by its former detainees.
[1][2] The Branch was established in 1969 as the liaison between the Ba'athist Syrian regime and the various Palestinian entities permitted to operate in Syria (Fatah, as-Sa'iqa, DFLP, and PFLP).
[10] Access to the prison yard for natural sunlight is limited to ten minutes per month.
There was just an old large Pepsi bottle filled with urine.There was a small opening in the ceiling, about one foot by two feet with iron bars.
No light.The prison officers frequently threaten sexual violence, particularly gang rape, and occasionally carry it out.
It wasn't every day, but it was regular.Methods of torture include the "German chair" (a metal chair frame used to stretch the spine), the "dulab" or "tire method" (in which the prisoner is made to place his head, legs, and arms through a car tire in order to immobilize him while he is beaten by the interrogator), "shabeh" hanging (where the detainee is suspended from the ceiling from by his wrists such that his toes are barely touching the ground), "falaqa" (where the detainee is laid on his back, his legs are lifted at a 90-degree angle, and the soles of his feet are beaten), electrocution, and others.
Witness 2 testified that the interrogators poured cleaning chemicals on his body, which caused severe burns, and prevented him from washing it off.