Assad regime accused of a host of crimes since beginning of Syrian war

The Assad regime has been accused of various crimes during the conflict that started in 2011, including torture in prisons, summary executions and the use of chemical weapons.

Some European countries have meanwhile launched investigations into alleged crimes by the Syrian regime, such as France which announced Monday international arrest warrants for three senior intelligence officials over the deaths of two Franco-Syrian nationals in a Syrian jail.

Here is an overview:

- 'TORTURE ARCHIPELAGO' -
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says at least 60,000 people have died from torture or harsh conditions in regime custody since the conflict began.

Already in 2012 group Human Rights Watch said Syria was holding tens of thousands of detainees in a "torture archipelago".

It documented 27 detention facilities nationwide used to hold people swept up in the government's crackdown on protesters.

Witnesses described torture, including beatings, the use of electricity or car battery acid, sexual assault and mock executions.

- PHOTOGRAPHER REVEALS ABUSES -
In 2014 a former Syrian military photographer codenamed "Caesar" fled the country taking with him 55,000 images of abuses committed in its jails between 2011 and 2013.

The digital images of 11,000 people alleged to have died in detention showed emaciated bodies.

The evidence has been used in investigations in Germany and France.

- 'EXTERMINATION' -
In February 2016 UN investigators said "the mass scale of deaths of detainees suggests that the government of Syria is responsible for acts that amount to extermination".

A year later Amnesty International said as many as 13,000 people were hanged between 2011 and 2015 at the notorious Saydnaya military-run prison near Damascus.

This came on top of the 17,700 people it had already recorded as having perished in regime prisons since the start of the conflict.

In May 2017 Washington claimed that Damascus had built a "crematorium" at Saydnaya to cover up thousands of prisoner deaths.

- CHEMICAL WEAPONS -
Human Rights Watch has since 2012 accused the Syrian armed forces of using banned incendiary weapons against its opponents.

The Britain-based Observatory and other activists also claim the regime has dropped TNT-packed barrels from aircraft.

There have also been several allegations of the use of chemical weapons, including sarin and chlorine, which the regime denies.

- RAPE -
A UN inquiry published in March 2018 and based on 454 interviews said that Syrian troops and government-linked militia systematically used rape and sexual violence against civilians.

Rebel fighters committed similar violations but at a considerably lower rate, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry for Syria said.

- INVESTIGATIONS -
A French court opened in 2016 its investigation into the deaths of two Franco-Syrian nationals, father and son Mazen and Patrick Dabbagh, who were arrested in Syria 2013.

The three warrants issued in the case early October but only made public Monday are for complicity in acts of torture, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

In Germany in March 2017 seven Syrian torture survivors, two lawyers and a human rights group filed a criminal complaint against secret service officials of the Assad regime.

And in November 2017 Syrian refugees in Germany filed new criminal complaints accusing the regime of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

In June 2018 German prosecutors reportedly issued an international arrest warrant for a top Syrian intelligence officer accused of overseeing the torture and murder of hundreds of detainees.

The UN's International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism, set up in 2016, is also preparing war crimes charges against individuals over the conflict, saying in September it aimed to open at least two cases by year's end.