Relatives who arrived at the prison suspect that there are still prisoners lurking underground in secret cells. The story tells about the al-Assad regime’s torture methods. This may shock you.
Mika Mäkeläinen,
Ilkka Kemppinen,
Päivi Koskinen
18:45•Updated 18:49
In the video above, even one child is revealed among the prisoners.
The Guardian confirms that the video was filmed in Saidnaya prison near the Syrian capital Damascus. has not been able to confirm the origin of the video from its own sources.
A large number of Syrians have been searching for their relatives Bashar al-Assad from the most infamous cave of the tyrannical regime: the Saidnaya military prison, called Teurastamo.
The rebels who made the revolution have released all the prisoners they found in Saidnaya. Many relatives suspect that there are still underground cells in the prison’s bowels that have not yet been accessed.
The Syrian Civil Defense, or the so-called White Helmets aid organization, announced on Monday afternoon message service in Xthat at least no evidence of secret cells has yet been found. The organization says it participated in investigations in prison.
Not even the one who went to jail of The Guardian the reporter saw no evidence of them.
In the videos filmed by the eyewitnesses, the sound of the beeping machine can still be heard when people who came to the prison from outside try to break through the walls and floors of the basement.
The Saidnaya military prison had a terrifying reputation even before the Syrian civil war. Assad’s oppressive apparatus has killed and tortured a huge number of opponents of the dictatorship there.
Almost 18,000 people died in Syrian prisons between 2011 and 2015 alone, the human rights organization Amnesty International estimated in a report in 2016.
Many of them were tortured to death. A significant part of these deaths occurred in Saidnaya prison.
Al-Assad’s regime’s human rights crimes have continued even after 2015, but obtaining verified information has been difficult.
of the Syrian Network for Human Rights according to reports Prisoners are still being tortured in Syrian prisons.
Children, elderly and sick prisoners have also been tortured. The organization has also documented dozens of cases from last year in which a tortured prisoner has died.
The video below shows how people rush Saidnaya into the prison.
Al-Assad’s regime has sentenced people to prison on light grounds.
Amnesty according to the jail report the vast majority of Saidnaya’s prisoners are ordinary Syrians who were suspected by the Assad regime of opposing the dictatorship. You could end up in prison without a trial.
The Saidnaya prison, managed by the Ministry of Defense, houses the military police and various intelligence organizations. They systematically tortured the prisoners and killed them en masse.
Saidnaya was a sadistic place of punishment. According to the report, torture was not used as a means of interrogation, with which even an attempt was made to obtain information from the detainees, but specifically as a means of humiliating as punishment.
Prisoners even learn to be afraid of family visits, because prisoners were especially beaten after them, says Amnesty.
In Syrian prisons, the means of torture used include tying a prisoner around a ring and beating the soles of his feet.
In addition, electric shocks, rape and other sexual violence have been used. Prisoners’ nails have been pulled off or they have been burned with hot water and cigarettes. In winter, the prisoners are allowed to die of the cold.
According to the report, the military court handed out death sentences in quick trials of a couple of minutes. Sentences were carried out, among other things, at mass hangings organized once or twice a week, which the Saidnaya prison management called a party.
Convicts were often lied to that they would be transferred to a civilian prison. Instead, they were tortured one last time before dying.
The video below shows a child who, according to The Guardian, is in Saidnaya prison. has not been able to verify the origin of the video.
Amnesty says that in many cases the authorities told relatives that the prisoners had died, even though they were still being held at Saidnaya.
It is precisely these lost relatives that the Syrians are now looking for in prisons.
According to the organization, according to 2017 data, the prison could hold 10–20,000 prisoners.
Conditions in Saidnaya have been extremely bad anyway. Prisoners have also died of starvation and mild infections, because their health was not taken care of.
Cramming prisoners into cramped and dark interiors also caused serious mental health problems.
Saidnaya is not the only place where the innocent may still be lurking.
Syrian White Helmets aid organization has promised $5,000 reward for information on secret prisons in Syria.
In particular, it has appealed to the former employees of the security organizations, so that even the last prisoners could be saved.
Story updated on December 9, 2024 at 6:48 p.m.: The White Helmets increased their reward offer from $3,000 to $5,000.