What was going on in Syria's infamous execution house!

After the fall of Bashar al-Assad's government in Syria, the gates of the infamous Sednaya prison were opened. Prisoners who had been imprisoned for years were released. What was Sednaya prison like? What was going on behind the four walls of that slaughterhouse? Let's look back at history.

According to a report by Amnesty International, one after another disappearances, murders, and inhuman torture have been going on in this Syrian prison since 2011. A 2021 report by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights in England claims that more than 100,000 prisoners have been sentenced to death or died in custody in Syrian prisons, of which more than 30,000 were prisoners in Sednaya!

According to the Amnesty report, there are two separate prisons within the boundaries of Sednaya. One is a red building and the other is a white building. Ordinary citizens were kept in the red building. And the white building housed military and political prisoners. After a nominal trial in the military field court of Al-Qabun, the prisoners of the red building were sentenced to death. The ‘trial’ would end in just one to three minutes. The day on which the death sentence was carried out one by one, the prison guards called that day a ‘party’. Sometimes mass executions were also organized. The names of those sentenced to death on the list were brought one by one to a secret room in the basement of the red building. There, unspeakable torture and beatings would continue for two to three hours. Then, late at night, the prisoners were blindfolded and taken to a specific room in the white building. There they were hanged together.

This ‘party’ would take place once or twice a week. On each ‘party’ night, 20 to 50 prisoners would be hanged. However, none of the prisoners could even know about this ‘party’. They were informed just a minute before the execution that they had been sentenced to death! Even the prison guards in the Red Building did not know what happened to the prisoners after they were taken to the White Building late at night. After the execution, the bodies were taken to Tishreen Hospital in trucks. There, after their names were registered, they were buried in mass graves. Amnesty claims that from 2011 to 2015, about 13,000 prisoners were sentenced to death in this way without trial in Saydnaya.

There is also a history of torture against prisoners in Saydnaya. In addition to indiscriminate beatings of prisoners, sexual torture was also practiced. Sometimes one prisoner was forced to rape another prisoner. In addition, there was no adequate food, water, or medicine. The prisoners were kept gagged during the torture. As a result of the unspeakable torture, some prisoners lost their mental balance. A video of a prisoner released from Saydnaya was released on Sunday (although Anandabazar Online has not verified the authenticity of the video). It shows a gaunt young man sitting on the side of the road outside Saydnaya with a blanket wrapped around him. His speech is incoherent. He has forgotten his name and address due to the torture. After the video was released, another round of discussions about this notorious prison in Syria has begun.

As soon as the gates of Saydnaya were opened, excitement began in the country. However, Fadel Abdulghani, founder of the Syrian Network for Human Rights, says that this excitement over the release of political prisoners is normal. But if all types of prisoners are released, it is also a cause for concern!

It is worth noting that President Bashar al-Assad fled the attack by the joint forces of the Syrian rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and their affiliate Jaish al-Izz al-Din. Along with the capital Damascus, one city after another has fallen to the rebels. The country's rebel group has declared Damascus 'independent'. Independence celebrations have begun at the Syrian embassy in Doha, Qatar. Prime Minister Mohammad Ghazi Jalali has also said that he is ready to transfer power. But it must be peaceful.

Syria has been in a civil war for more than 13 years. Several parties are fighting there. In 2011, America began supporting pro-democracy armed groups against Syrian President Assad. Later, the Pentagon deployed troops in various areas, including Deir ez-Zor province in eastern Syria and Hasaka in the northeast, to stop the growth of ISIS.