A/HRC/22/59 15. Other interviewees spoke about torture taking place at Military Security in Izra, Dara’a; Military Security in Homs city; Military Security Branch 215 in Damascus; Political Intelligence in Hama; and Military Security and Air Force Intelligence in Latakia city. Five interviewees stated that they (and in one case, the interviewee’s son) had undergone multiple interrogations and assaults while being transferred among detention centres and governorates. 16. Reported methods of torture remained consistent across the country. Interviewees described being placed in prolonged stress positions; severe beatings about the head and body with electric cables, whips, metal and wooden sticks and rifle butts; electric shocks applied to sensitive parts of the body, including the genitals and ears; burnt with cigarettes; and kicked. 17. The commission received 15 reports of detainees being placed in prolonged stress positions, such as hanging from walls or ceilings by their wrists (shabah) and hanging by wrists tied behind their backs. Eleven interviewees stated that they had been subjected to electric shocks to various parts of their bodies; four interviewees reported being beaten on the soles of the feet (falaqa). Other methods reported were forcing detainees to bend at the waist and place their head, neck and legs through a car tire while beatings were administered (dulab); tying the detainees to a flat board with their head unsupported and either stretching them (as on a rack) or folding the board in half (Bishat al-Rih or the “flying carpet”). Incidents of sexual violence in detention centres are detailed in document A/HRC/22/59, annex IX. For many interviewees, scars and wounds, consistent with their accounts, were still visible. 18. One interviewee, arrested in mid-July during a house search and taken to the ‘Palestine branch’ of Military Security in Damascus, reported that he had been hung from the ceiling; given electric shocks to his genitals, had cigarettes extinguished on his body, including on his anus; and was beaten with a hose. Another interviewee, who worked at the Palestine branch, stated that between June and August, he witnessed detainees hung from the ceiling by the wrists for extended periods of time; having electric shocks applied to their genitals and ears; and beaten. Further, he indicated that he witnessed one detainee being thrown off the roof of the building by intelligence officers, causing his death. 19. Six interviewees reported family members suffering abuse during their detention at Air Force Intelligence in Aleppo city. One detailed how his relative and two other men, which travelling through a “pro-Government village” where detained by Government affiliated militias and taken to Air Force Intelligence. They were reportedly hung from the wrists and stabbed. Two of them, including the interviewee’s relative, were shot in the head and their bodies dumped in Aleppo. The third, who had been stabbed multiple times, was found still alive after having been left on the street near the intelligence branch. Another interviewee stated that his brother had been held for less than a week and had been beaten and suffered electric shocks to his face, chest and genitals. Another, whose brother had been arrested and was later found dead, was informed that the deceased had also been held at Air Force Intelligence. The commission viewed a post-mortem video of the body of the deceased, which bore clear marks of beatings and cuts, particularly on the deceased’s back. 20. A further interviewee worked as a guard at Air Force Intelligence in Aleppo between May and October. He stated he could hear detainees screaming and crying and saw several detainees with injuries following interrogation. He recalled several instances where detainees had to be carried from the interrogation rooms to their cells as they were unable to walk. One interviewee described the dumping of bodies, including one of a child, outside Air Force Intelligence in Aleppo, with their bodies showing evidence of beatings and mutilation. GE.13-10627 69