STORIES EMERGE OF ‘UNDERGROUND CITY’ OF TORTURE FROM SEDNAYA PRISON IN DAMASCUS

Mon 09 December 2024:

Syrian opposition factions working to free detainees from the regime’s dungeons have found three underground floors at Sednaya Prison which remain inaccessible, with detainees trapped behind electric gates and concealed doors .

Local social media accounts showed hundreds of prisoners leaving the prison, which was a slaughterhouse for dissidents. Many of them had clear signs of torture and deprivation at the hands of regime forces.

Some of the most striking stories from Sednaya include the release of women and children, as documented by video footage. Activists highlighted that some detainees remain trapped underground in the prison’s “red section” without food or water, as prison guards fled and left them behind bars.

Three underground floors of Sednaya prison remain unaccessible.

Thousands of people are trapped in their cells, as their families scramble to locate secret entry points to help free them.

Calls on HR organisations to intervene growing louder. pic.twitter.com/JIEZB3NoWt

— Arwa Ibrahim (@arwaib) December 9, 2024

Disturbing scenes also captured execution ropes used on inmates. Several detainees who were freed revealed they were minutes away from execution when opposition forces intervened.

Reports indicate that mass and secret executions were frequently carried out in the prison, especially after the outbreak of the Syrian revolution in 2011.

In 2017, Amnesty International published a report titled “Human Slaughterhouse”, which stated that between 5,000 and 13,000 people were executed at Sednaya between 2011 and 2015. Other human rights reports suggest that executions, mostly carried out by hanging, were conducted systematically.

Syrian authorities had refused to allow international human rights organisations from accessing the prison. As a result, most available information comes from survivor testimonies and human rights groups.

-MEMO

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