Torture report ‘politicised,’ photos ‘fake’: Syria

AFP, Damascus :
Syria’s justice ministry on Wednesday dismissed a report alleging mass torture and killing by the country’s regime as “politicised” calling the shocking photos in the document “fake”.
“The justice ministry completely denies the veracity of the report,” Syrian state news agency SANA quoted the ministry as saying in a statement.
“It is a politicised report that lacks objectivity and professionalism,” the ministry said.
The comments came in response to the publication of a report alleging the “industrial-scale” torture and murder of 11,000 detainees by the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The report put together by a British law firm and commissioned by Qatar-which backs the Syrian rebels-says there is “clear evidence” of the starvation, strangulation and beating of detainees in Syrian prison.
It is based on forensic analysis of a portion of 55,000 digital images smuggled out of Syria by a defector who served as a police photographer, documenting as many as 50 bodies a day.
The photos in the report are gruesome, showing emaciated and seriously injured detainees.