This has resulted in a dilemma for the doctors at the hospitals. The medical workers face prosecution themselves if they treat wounded protesters without reporting them to the security forces. Due to this situation, many injured people choose not to have their wounds treated in state-run hospitals but rather go to private hospitals or makeshift field hospitals. Many of the wounded need blood in order to survive; however, the blood can only be requested from the Central Blood Bank. Such a request would immediately inform security forces of the wounded person and, thus, putting him at the risk of detention and torture.
AI has called upon the government to enable the treatment of all injured people irrespective of their political opinion and to prosecute any person which obstructs the work of health workers.
A leading Syrian human rights activist has estimated the number of arrests over 30,000 since the start of the opposition protests in March. According to Radwan Ziadeh, co-founder of the Damascus Centre for Human Rights and scholar at the George Washington University in Washington, all of the major football stadiums in the country have been turned into prisons. The severe restrictions on access to journalists and human rights activists make it hard to verify any given number. The United Nations estimate that 3,000 people have been killed during the unrest.
AI: Climate of fear in Syria's hospitals as patients and medics targeted
BBC News: Syria 'using hospitals for torture' - Amnesty
