A/HRC/23/58 facility were tortured regularly and held in cramped cells containing vermin and insects. Detainees were stripped naked, subjected to electrical shocks and suspended for prolonged periods from the ceiling by the arms with their toes barely touching the ground (shabh). One survivor stated “death is better”. 83. Detainees held at the Latakia Military Security branch are systematically tortured, beaten with batons and cables, punched, kicked and subjected to dulab, whereby detainees are forced into a tyre and beaten. 84. Persons detained at the Military Security branch in Dara’a were consistently subjected to electric shocks, beatings and the stretching of limbs (busat al rih). Hundreds of detainees were held in dangerously overcrowded conditions, forcing them to sleep standing up. In a facility operated by the 38th Regiment in Bosra (Dara’a), detainees were subjected to shabh, had boiling water poured on them and electric shocks administered. 85. In an underground facility in Branch 285, the General Intelligence Directorate in Damascus, hundreds of detainees are held in deplorable conditions in cramped cells. Detainees are denied medical care, and the health and hygiene needs of female detainees are ignored. Victims described how guards routinely beat detainees at 7 p.m. every day and used the shabh, dulab, busat al rih and falaqa torture methods. 86. Detainees held in Adra Prison (north-eastern Damascus) and in Homs Central Prison suffered from inadequate food and water, insufficient sanitary installations and a total absence of medical care. In Adra Prison, detainees were held in inhumane and degrading conditions in cramped cells. Detainees released from the Military Security and Air Force Intelligence prisons in Ar Raqqah city and the Military Security Branch detention centre in nearby Al-Tabqah bear extensive signs of torture. 87. The ill-treatment described by victims detained in Government prisons and facilities amounts to cruel treatment and torture. Government officials wilfully cause great suffering and serious injury to body and health, using torture to instil fear, extract confessions and punish. Such conduct amounts to a violation of common article 3 of the Geneva Conventions and is a war crime. The systemic ill-treatment and torture documented in detention centres across the Syrian Arab Republic are evidence of a State policy of torture, constituting a crime against humanity. 2. Anti-government armed groups 88. Torture has been documented in detention facilities run by the Judicial Council and the Sharia Board in Aleppo. Detainees suspected of being members of the Shabbiha were subjected to severe physical or mental pain and suffering to obtain information or confessions, or as punishment or coercion. 89. In contested areas, individuals have been beaten at checkpoints controlled by antigovernment armed groups. In January, Jabhat Al-Nusra fighters arrested a man on the road from Saraqib (Idlib) to Aleppo on the suspicion that he was Shia. He was detained for three days. When released, he bore extensive bruises and other signs of torture. At an FSA checkpoint in Aleppo city, persons perceived to be supportive of the Government were harassed and subjected to beatings and other ill-treatment. 90. Severe ill-treatment for any reason based on discrimination of any kind amounts to torture and is a violation of international humanitarian law. The war crime of torture and cruel treatment has been perpetrated by Jabhat Al-Nusra fighters and other anti-government armed groups. 15