'Hitler' as guard and 72 forms of torture: more horror stories about Assad's prisons are coming to light Modified: Yesterday, 14:39Yesterday, 13:39in Abroad
“Sednaya is the end of life, the end of humanity,” a former guard testified in 2017 about the Syrian prison that became a symbol of the Assad regime’s brutality. Two days after the president’s fall, the prison doors have opened and the horror stories are coming out.
Sednaya prison seen from above. "Sednaya is the end of life, the end of humanity," a former guard testified.
Sednaya prison, also known as the "human slaughterhouse," is located about 32 kilometers north of the Syrian capital Damascus. The complex is divided into two buildings: the red building, for civilians, and the white building, where officers and soldiers of the army were usually placed.
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'Syrian activist who was granted asylum in the Netherlands found dead in horror cell' According to human rights organization Amnesty International, at its "peak" approximately 20,000 people were detained at the same time.
Since the regime of President Bashar al-Assad was toppled by a jihadist rebel alliance two days ago, thousands of prisoners have been released from Sednaya. They include a former pilot who refused to bomb the city of Hama more than 40 years ago, a 3-year-old child who was held with his mother, and a teenager who had spent his entire life in prison and was filmed saying the only word he knew: “Halap,” or Aleppo.
Forced to torture each other Survivors described being held in the dark, in freezing cells with floors covered in blood. Blankets and clothing were confiscated if prisoners dared to talk or sleep without permission. Family members were forced to torture each other or face execution. “The scenes I saw can never be erased from my memory,” said a 49-year-old who spent a year in Sednaya before being released this week. “I can’t shake the image of an elderly man covered in blood.”
Thousands of Syrians Possibly Still Trapped in 'Human Slaughterhouse': 'Hell on Earth with Nazi Torture Techniques' Others said they were stuffed into tires and beaten until they passed out, only to wake up naked in a freezing hallway. One testified that he saw a teenager die from his injuries after 21 days, when guards doused him with gasoline and set him alight.
72 Forms of Torture In a prison near the Mezzeh air base, southwest of Damascus, witnesses said a guard who called himself "Hitler" forced prisoners to pretend to be dogs, cats or donkeys. Those who didn't obey were beaten and tortured. One prisoner told The New York Times that 19 of his cellmates died in a single month from disease, torture or neglect.
The UK-based Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) released a report in 2019 stating that as many as 72 forms of torture were used in Assad regime prisons.
These include electrocuting genitals, burning them with oil, metal rods, gunpowder or flammable pesticides, crushing heads between a wall and a prison cell door and inserting needles or metal pins into the body. Footage released this week also shows iron presses, presumably used to break bones or execute prisoners. According to witnesses, numerous prisoners were hanged regularly.
Civil war According to the most recent SNHR report, published in March of this year, more than 230,000 Syrians have been killed since the start of the Syrian Civil War in 2011, of whom more than 15,000 were tortured. Nearly 157,000 civilians have been arrested, after which many of them simply ‘disappeared’. 14 million inhabitants have been displaced, many of whom have fled to Europe.
