September 25, 2013: Torture in Syria

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"This Is What the World’s Bloodiest War Looks Like: A photo a day from the Syrian civil war" is the headline for an IotD on Medium, focusing on just this topic.

Seventeen-year-old Ali Hassan made the mistake of hanging out with friends near a rebel checkpoint in Baba Amr. Suspecting he was a rebel fighter—something Hassan denies—the army arrested him in March. For four months he was passed between various regime intelligence agencies. He was tortured until he falsely confessed to being a fighter: electrocuted, cigarettes extinguished on his skin.

Released in July, he and his mother made their way to Lebanon and a sympathetic charity hospital. He wasn’t the only Baba Amr survivor there.