‘Assault, electrocution’: How Syria’s prisons expose Bashar al-Assad regime’s brutality

Human rights organisations have repeatedly flagged the arbitrary arrest and detention of citizens in the region. The torture and humiliation meted out to prisoners inside jails have also been well-documented. Over the years, many Syrians have been classified as “disappeared”, with little information on whether they are dead or alive in some prison.

Arrests under Assad’s regime

Bashar al-Assad’s authoritarian regime used arrests and detention to crush dissent. A report released by the United Nations last week documents how protesters were rounded up and arrested during a wave of demonstrations against the regime in 2011. These included adolescents and women who were protesting peacefully.

In November alone, at least 196 arbitrary arrests were recorded, according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR). An annual report by SNHR details that as many as 1,13,218 people arrested since March 2011 remain “forcibly disappeared”. “Syrian regime forces are responsible for the vast majority of arrests and enforced disappearances, detaining 86.7 per cent of all such victims,” the report said.

Torture, death inside prisons

Witnesses have spoken of the physical and psychological mistreatment meted out inside the jails. In the UN report on Syrian prisons, many recount how they were beaten up, manhandled and electrocuted. Witnesses have also spoken of the sexual exploitation of female prisoners.

The prisoners in many cases were kept in cold, cramped and damp cells or underground dungeons. Many spoke of starvation, diseases and a lack of hygiene.

A 2019 report by The New York Times suggests that top officials who reported directly to Bashar al-Assad, knew of the atrocities inside the prison. The Syrian government repeatedly denied the allegations of abuse inside the jails.

According to the UN report, the conditions inside the Sednaya military prison near Damascus – among the most feared – were filthy. Prisoners were reportedly denied food and water, with some resorting to drinking their urine. The cells were overcrowded, and the prisoners were regularly abused.

In 2017, the US State Department flagged the construction of a crematorium near the military prison, which it alleged was being used by the Syrian regime to dispose of the bodies of prisoners. It even shared satellite photos to buttress its claims. The State Department accused the Syrian regime of covering up mass extra-judicial killings.

Prisoners freed by Syrian rebels

Videos doing the rounds on social media show rebels opening locked doors to cells and freeing women prisoners. The clips also show children in detention.

A video cited by news agency Reuters shows men running out of a prison in Damascus. One is seen limping and shouting, “10 years in prison”. Another asks a bystander what has happened. “We toppled the regime,” says a person, and the escaped prisoner rejoices.

In clips shared by Al Jazeera, a prisoner struggles to remember his name and where he is from. In another video, a prisoner claims that he was to be executed that day but was saved.

A video also captures several screens displaying CCTV footage at Sednaya, one of the most infamous prisons in Syria. Reports suggest that there are hidden underground cells in Sednaya that are yet to be broken into.

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