The Syrian government has turned hospitals "into instruments of repression" against pro-democracy protesters, Amnesty International charged Tuesday.
Wounded patients in at least four government-run hospitals had been subjected to torture and other abuse, including by medical workers, the London-based human rights group said, DPA reported.
"It is deeply alarming that the Syrian authorities seem to have given the security forces a free rein in hospitals and that in many cases hospital staff appear to have taken part in torture and ill treatment of the very people they are supposed to care for," said Cilina Nasser, an Amnesty International Middle East and North Africa researcher.
Patients had been assaulted by medical staff and security personnel at national hospitals in Banias, Homs and Tel Kalakh and the military hospital in Homs, Amnesty said in a report.
"The Syrian authorities must see sense and urgently act to ensure that all patients are treated equally without discrimination based on their suspected political loyalties or activities," it said.
A Syrian activist also said the government has detained more than 30,000 people in its crackdown on protests since mid-March.
"President Bashar al-Assad's government has turned all the country's main football stadiums into prisons," Radwan Ziadeh, co-founder of the Damascus Center for Human Rights, said Monday at UN headquarters in New York.
According to UN estimates, more than 3,000 people have been killed in the unrest.
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