Inside the hunt for hidden cells in Sednaya prison, Syria’s ‘human
slaughterhouse’
Exclusive: The Guardian gains access to Sednaya jail, where prisoners are
rumoured to be trapped underground – as desperate relatives wait for news
Syria live – latest updates
William Christou in Sednaya
Mon 9 Dec 2024
The celebrations in Damascus were interrupted by a whisper.
On the outskirts of the city, a door had been found. Beyond it lay a vast
underground complex, five stories deep, containing the last prisoners of the
Assad regime, who were gasping for air.
Cars raced towards Sednaya prison, locally known as “the human
slaughterhouse”, the most notorious torture complex of the Syrian
government’s vast network of detention centres. The Guardian followed as
traffic came to a standstill and rumours were passed between lowered
windows: there were 1,500 prisoners trapped underground that needed
rescuing; perhaps your loved ones are among them. Cars were ditched by the
roadside and people began to walk.
A procession lit by thousands of phone torches streamed through the prison
complex gates, which until rebels took control of the facility earlier on Sunday,
had guaranteed entry but not exit. Families huddled around fires in the prison
ground to keep warm, while keeping an eye on the prison doors to see if they
could recognise any faces coming out.
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Rebel fighters tried to stop people from entering the prison itself, firing rounds
in the air – but the crowd surged forward undeterred.
Inside, people roved about the labyrinthine facility, moving from cell to cell,
searching for any clue that could them tell them where their relatives and
friends might be. They were racing to locate the hidden underground wing –
which they called the “red wing” – amid fears prisoners were starving without
food and asphyxiating from lack of air.
“There are three in my family missing. They told us that there are four levels
underground, and that people are choking inside – but we don’t know where it
is,” said Ahmad al-Shnein as he searched the prison corridor.
“The ones that emerged from here looked like skeletons. So imagine how those
underground will look,” Shnein said.
The prison was seemingly built to induce a sense of placeless-ness. At its
centre is a spiral staircase that from the ground floor appears endless. The
staircase is ringed by metal bars and, beyond them, large identical vault doors,
through which lie the facility’s three wings. According to the rebel fighters, each
wing specialised in a different form of torture. There are no windows to the
outside world.
People looking through documents by torchlight
View image in fullscreen
Teams looking for secret compartments in Sednaya prison on Monday.
Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
On Sunday, people milled around the metal staircase, entering and emerging
from different doors, but always returning to the centre. Rebel fighters seemed
no better informed. One had finally found a map, and crowds huddled around
him as he pored over the half-a-metre wide paper document, its looping scrawl
almost illegible.
The cramped cells were littered with blankets and clothes, cast off when
prisoners were suddenly freed by rebels earlier in the day. Some had jagged
holes in the walls, where additional prisoners had been crammed. Videos
showed fighters freeing female prisoners on Sunday, who needed to be
encouraged to leave, unable to believe they were truly getting out.
The narrow cells, no more than a few meters across, had been stuffed with
more than a dozen people at a time, leaving no space to lie down, according to
rights groups. The screams of prisoners being tortured could be heard echoing
down the hallways.
According to Amnesty International, up to 20,000 prisoners were held at
Sednaya, most of them imprisoned after secret sham trials that lasted no more
than a few minutes. Survivors of the prison recounted brutal daily beatings and
torture by prison guards that included rape, electric shocks and more. Many
were tortured to death.
Survivors said guards enforced a rule of absolute silence within the prison. If
the detainees could not speak, they could at least write. Cell walls were covered
in scrawled, handwritten messages. Tab, khadni. Enough already, just take me,
one message read.
Composite of messages found in cells at the found in notorious Sednaya prison
in Syria
View image in fullscreen
Composite of messages found in cells at the found in notorious Sednaya prison
in Syria. Photograph: William Christou/The Guardian
Another piece of paper, found on the ground, torn and trodden, detailed the
death of a prisoner, seemingly written by another detainee eager to document
the death of his friend.
The note, written by a 63-year-old prisoner who signed it as Mohammed
Abdulfatah al-Jassem, said that he saw another prisoner – whose name was
not legible – fall and hit his head during a seizure. He left a phone number on
the note for the person who found it to call. No one picked up when the
Guardian rang.
In the chaos of the prison break, records were taken by families searching for
relatives. Each ledger, filled with names and other details, were carried out of
the prison where groups of people would gather and see if they knew anyone
mentioned. Rights groups have cautioned that records need to be preserved in
an orderly fashion, so that the fate of about 136,000 people arrested by the
Assad regime can be documented.
Yells began to emerge from somewhere within the prison and people began to
run. Someone had broken open a door, and said that he had heard a voice from
below. Fighters yelled for calm as hundreds clamoured to see who might be
below. They set to work, the clang of a shovel against a padlock reverberating
through the metal fortress.
Men, women and children emerge from Sednaya prison in Damascus – video
1:22
Men, women and children emerge from Sednaya prison in Damascus – video
Syrian civil defence on Monday released a statement saying that despite an
intensive search through the facility, they had not found any prisoners trapped
underground. They cautioned people not to get their hopes up as rumours and
misinformation circulated.
For many, Sednaya was their last hope of finding missing loved ones. Yamen al-
Alaay, an 18-year old from the countryside of Damascus who was leaving
Sednaya, said he had been going from prison to prison looking for his uncle
who had disappeared in 2017.
“We arrived today and we searched and we searched, but we didn’t find
anything. Those in the red wing have still not been found,” Alaay said, vowing to
come back in the morning.
As people left Sednaya in the late hours of the night, thousands more were still
coming from Damascus. One man coming in asked another departing, “Did you
find anyone? Did anyone new emerge?” The man replied in a low voice, “No,
but hopefully tomorrow.”
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