Syria Claims Assad Officials Harvested Organs from Prisoners for Elite Transplants

Officials under the Assad regime reportedly extracted organs from detainees and transplanted them into sick relatives of families linked to the former government, according to a statement from Syria's Justice Ministry issued last week.

The claims emerged alongside video recordings of alleged admissions from officers and physicians said to have taken part in the procedures.

Ex-military personnel and medical workers described conducting operations on individuals seized by Assad intelligence branches, resulting in kidneys and livers being placed into recipients connected to senior figures.

One former physician at Damascus Tishreen Military Hospital stated he carried out a procedure to extract the liver from a healthy detainee held at Branch 215, intended for a first lieutenant in the Republican Guard whose father had close ties to Bashar al-Assad.

The prisoner died shortly after the organ removal, while the lieutenant reportedly succumbed to post-operative complications.

Horror Hospital Linked to Detainee Organ Removal in Assad-Era Syria

International outlets have long referred to the facility as the horror hospital due to its extensive record of human rights violations.

Agence France-Presse documented accounts last year from former prisoners who endured severe beatings at the site leading to immobility, while Human Rights Watch highlighted instances of torture and extrajudicial executions by hospital personnel and regime agents over a decade earlier.

Attorney General Hassan al-Turba asserted that Tishreen functioned as an extension of Assad intelligence operations, per Syrian state broadcaster Al-Ikhbariah.

So far the details obtained about the detainees stem from individuals who worked at the hospital prior to defecting, he noted.

A Syrian specialist who requested anonymity informed The Jerusalem Post that he received advice while detained by the prior regime in 2012 to resist transfer to the hospital, citing concerns that his organs might be trafficked.

Held in 2012 with roughly 15 colleagues from the Violations and Documentation Center, he was moved to the 4th Division under Bashar al-Assad's brother, where harsh conditions caused illness. As he considered requesting a hospital transfer, fellow inmates cautioned that those sent there never returned and shared reports of organ-smuggling operations.

He observed that evidence for the claims remained limited at the time, though he expressed relief at following the warnings.

Only 10 percent of Syrians requiring organ transplants receive them, based on research published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature in January, which cited low trust in available healthcare alongside religious limitations.

Cultural and religious barriers to organ donation have fueled donor shortages, rendering trafficking more lucrative.

The Violation Documentation Center raised alarms more than 10 years ago that both soldiers and civilians killed had organs removed without consent for sale in nations including India, Russia, Iran, and North Korea, according to Turkish media outlet Anadolu Agency. Sources indicated to the Syrian Observer that such activities were concealed by the former regime with involvement from senior officials.