Syria ‘Using Hospitals for Torture’

The Syrian government is torturing patients in state-run hospitals in order to squelch dissent, according to a new report by Amnesty International. The government has "given security forces a free rein in hospitals,” according to Amnesty researcher Cilina Nasser, and medical personnel sometimes participate in the abuse. Security forces routinely remove people from hospitals, and doctors and nurses face a “dilemma” when patients need blood: the government controls the blood bank, so any request alerts it to the patient’s presence. According to the report, many people are choosing to forgo medical treatment, even for serious wounds.