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Investigative Report: Syrian Field Courts Detain Children for Execution Upon Reaching Adulthood
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The detention of child prisoners until they reach legal age reveals a systematic policy by the Syrian regime to circumvent international laws prohibiting the execution of minors
An investigative report conducted by "The Syrian Unit for Investigative Journalism - Siraj" revealed a systematic punitive method followed by Syrian security agencies in dealing with detained children since 2011, where they are held without trial until reaching legal age (18 years), after which they are transferred to military field courts and executed.
The investigation documented 25 cases of Syrian children who were transferred to military field courts and received death sentences, including 24 confirmed deaths, distributed across the governorates of Hama (18 children), Homs (3 children), Idlib (2 children), and Aleppo and Daraa (one child each).
A source who worked in military police for three years explained that he witnessed more than 6,000 cases of underage detainees who received death sentences, noting that this number represents only what he witnessed during his work period.
According to the Syrian Legal Development Program, these practices constitute a flagrant violation of international law, which prohibits imposing death penalty or life imprisonment on those under 18 years old, and also violates Syrian law itself.
A report by the Syrian Network for Human Rights documented that military field courts issued 14,843 death sentences from March 2011 until August 2023, including 114 children and 26 women, with executions carried out against 7,872 people.
The investigation team reached the only survivor from the list, Mustafa Kamel Al-Khatib (28 years old), who recounted details of his arrest in 2013 while he was a ninth-grade student, and how his arrest date was changed to avoid registering him as a minor, before being sentenced to death then having the sentence reduced to 12 years after his family paid large sums of money.
Executions are carried out in Sednaya Military Prison, where human rights organizations documented the hanging of about 13,000 people between 2011 and 2015, after mock trials not exceeding two minutes before the military field court.
Despite the abolition of military field courts by presidential decree in September 2023, legal experts confirm that security agencies continue to refer detainees to military courts, terrorism courts, or civil judiciary, with the assessment of "crime and its description" remaining subject to security agencies, amid the absence of judicial independence.
Levant-Siraj
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