IDLIB, Syria, Dec 16 (IPS) – A man has been detained without trial for more than three years on charges of treating “terrorists” (considered opponents of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad). An old nurse from the Syrian city of Hama tells of her suffering while imprisoned with at least 35 other women.
She was released from Aidnaya Prison on December 8 after the fall of the Assad regime.
After the fall of the Assad regime and his escape to Moscow on December 8, armed opposition forces opened prison doors and released hundreds of prisoners who had endured the most horrific forms of torture for opposing Assad’s rule and demanding his resignation from power. Many people have lost their lives inside prisons and are buried in mass graves, and families of prisoners continue to search for loved ones lost in the prisons of tyranny.
year of torture
“I was arrested at a security checkpoint of the former Syrian regime and taken to the Damascus Political Security Department. My hands were handcuffed and my eyes were blindfolded. There were 35 women in the prison in a small, cramped cell. There was no privacy and a bathroom in the same room. was in,” Khalil told IPS. “Some of the women clearly showed signs of severe torture. The rooms were so small that they took turns sleeping on the floor. The most painful thing was that many of them were pregnant.” “This is a person whose children grew up in prison.”
During that time, she said, prisoners suffered “all forms of torture: hunger, cold, beatings, burning cigarettes, pulling out nails.”
Many of the imprisoned women were raped and subjected to sexual violence as punishment. After midnight, the guards would come to the prisoners’ cells, select the most beautiful girls, and take them to the officers’ cells.
“We preferred torture and even death to rape. If a girl refused to have sex during interrogation or confessed to the charges against her, she was killed by guards or interrogators and her body was thrown into a salt room. The body was kept as long as possible. “I prepared in advance to preserve it,” he said, shedding tears as he recalled the trauma of everyday life.
Khalil confirmed that prisoners were not allowed to look at guards, speak or make noise, even during torture. They were punished by being withheld water and being forced to sleep naked in sub-zero temperatures without blankets. Meals consisted of a few bites of spoiled food, and many contracted serious infections, illnesses, and mental disorders.
Now freed, Khalil hopes to enjoy safety, stability and peace in the country after years of oppression and injustice.
Adnan al-Ibrahim, 46, from the southern Syrian city of Daraa, was also released a few days ago after spending more than a decade in Adra prison outside Damascus on charges of defecting from Bashar al-Assad’s forces and seeking asylum. Lebanon.
“I feel like I am dreaming after I was released from prison. They accused me of terrorism, I was tortured and I was not brought to justice during my imprisonment. I am still traumatized by what I endured,” says Ibrahim. .
“We were treated in prison in the worst way imaginable. All we want now is the right to live a life of dignity, away from the injustice, arbitrary arrests and ongoing killings in Syria.”
He was now gaunt and weak. Malnutrition and poor diet led to rapid weight loss. Many of his fellow prisoners suffered from life-threatening illnesses as a result of the torture they endured. Many prisoners lost their memories after being hit on the head during interrogation, and their bodies were left abandoned for a long time before being buried. Many of these bodies were incinerated.
Burden caused by psychological Prauma
Samah Barakat, a 33-year-old mental health professional, said survivors of Syrian detention centers would need help to overcome their trauma.
‘The experience of imprisonment and torture in prison is painful and traumatic for survivors. Imprisonment is not limited to physical torture. Mental state is also affected. Prisoners were subjected to various forms of torture and oppression, which led to a significant deterioration in their mental health. These impacts include a variety of mental disorders, including psychosis, memory loss, and speech impairment, as well as the spread of diseases due to deprivation of basic health care.”
Barakat found that some prisoners were likely to suffer physical, psychological and behavioral impacts, with persistent anxiety, depression and social withdrawal.
She explains that detention survivors need psychological support depending on the impact of their detention experience. In some cases, psychological counseling or treatment with a specialist is necessary, and in other cases, a prescription from a psychiatrist is required due to depression or other mental illness.
unknown fate
For some, the uncertainty of the fate of their loved ones means the trauma of the Assad regime still lingers.
Allah al-Omar, 52, from the northern Syrian city of Idlib, went to Saydnaya Prison and the Palestinian branch of Damascus to look for his son, who had disappeared deep inside the prison after the fall of the Assad regime.
“I went to prison with longing, but I couldn’t find any trace of my son. It looks like he was tortured to death.”
Omar confirmed that his son was arrested by the Assad regime in 2015 while studying at a university in Aleppo and was accused of participating in protests, possessing weapons and joining the rebels.
Omar said he has not heard anything about his son or him since his arrest, and his fate remains unknown.
human rights violations
Salim al-Najjar, 41, a human rights activist from Aleppo, spoke about the suffering of detention survivors and told IPS that the history of building prisons and expanding detention centers in Syria dates back to the Hafez al-Assad regime. In the 1980s, excessive force was used against opponents, turning the country into a ‘large slaughterhouse.’
“In the prison of the regime, life is like a stone in the hand of a sculptor, dead and discarded without any significance. In it, people become mere numbers whose history, emotions and even dreams follow them. The end of their lives. The moment was ignored,” says Najjar.
Al-Najjar confirms the existence of numerous prisons in Syria, but Saydnaya Prison, located north of the Syrian capital Damascus, is known to be the most influential political detention center in Syria and is a site of torture and genocide. It was infamous for its terrible reputation. Executions have been carried out, especially since the outbreak of the Syrian revolution in 2011. Saidnaya Prison was where Assad detained opponents, defectors from his army, or those who rejected his “murderous policy.”
He notes that while few prisoners were released through family connections or bribes, prisoners were left to die from untreated wounds and disease in “dirty and overcrowded” cells.
He pointed out that many prisoners were released from prison unable to remember their names or reveal their identities due to mental incapacity, and that their appearance had changed to the extent that their families could not see them due to severe changes due to malnutrition and brutal torture. I didn’t recognize them at first.
Nazar hopes to submit evidence and documents to international courts to hold Assad and all perpetrators of violence in Syria accountable and bring justice for victims.
The Syrian Human Rights Network said: nameOn December 11, Assad killed at least 202,000 Syrian civilians, including 15,000 who died through torture, disappeared 96,000, forcibly displaced nearly 13 million Syrian citizens, and committed other abominations, including the use of chemicals. He was charged with committing a grievous offense. weapon.
“Syrian detention centers and torture chambers symbolize the suffering, oppression and suffering that Syrians have endured for decades. Detention survivors continue to heal their wounds and work to return to normal lives and reintegrate into society. Unfortunately, many of them were tortured to death.”
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© Interpress Service (2024) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Interpress Service
