But last week, Khoulani learned from their updated civil registries that Abdelsattar and Majd perished in prison in 2013 without a chance for the family to say goodbye. After years of silence on the issue, the Syrian government has started updating civil registries to reflect deaths among its incarcerated population, activists say. Amnesty International, in interviews with former detainees, doctors and prison guards who defected from Syria, estimated between 5,000 and 13,000 inmates were killed in Saydnaya prison alone between 2011 and 2015. Relatives have been instructed to take registry documents certifying their loved ones' deaths — documentation that is vital for matters of inheritance, title deeds, and social benefits. Their civil registries state both died on Jan. 15, 2013, the same day as five other activists from Daraya, a pattern that al-Abdallah said suggests a group execution, and not a coincidence.

Source: ABC News August 02, 2018 17:24 UTC