Analysis of intelligence documents reveals that family members spied on each other, teachers betrayed pupils — and ‘traitors’ were tortured and killed
Secret intelligence documents uncovered by The Sunday Times in Syria have revealed the terrifying extent of Bashar al-Assad’s Stasi-like surveillance state, where family members spied on each other and the slightest suspicion could result in ordinary people — including children — being swept into a network of prisons notorious for torture and executions, with victims buried in mass graves.
Thousands of files, written in neat biro or typed in formal Arabic, detail the way the regime has infiltrated protest and rebel groups since the revolution began in 2011. They reveal details about the vast network of informants that reported to the regime, and how the intelligence services forced the people they arrested to give up names of alleged collaborators — who would in turn be detained.
