Rebels claim thousands of prisoners dead in Assad’s ‘Red Prison’ – media

Syrian rebels who occupied the cities released prisoners from prisons. Now, after Bashar Assad and his family fled Damascus, it is the turn of the infamous Sednaya prison, nicknamed the “Red Prison” and “Human Massacre”. According to Amnesty International, at least 13,000 people were executed there from 2011 to 2016. While the rebels claim to have released some of the prisoners, some are kept in inaccessible underground floors. BBC reports this.

Sednaya Prison was used to house thousands of prisoners, both civilians and anti-government rebels, as well as political prisoners. In total, there were approximately 27 prisons in Syria under the control of the Assad regime.

A former prisoner who was detained for taking part in a peaceful protest told Amnesty International that at Sednaya, prisoners were forced to choose between death and the murder of a relative or friend. He stated that torture was also carried out in other prisons, but the prisoners were transferred to Sednaya to die.

A wide variety of inhumane tortures such as constant beatings, sexual assault, beheading, rape and burning were applied in prison. In 2017, the US State Department announced that a crematorium was built in the prison for the “disposal of the bodies of those executed”. Now a hydraulic press was found during the search.

Some prisoners spent years in the “Red Prison”. The broadcast quotes Syrian journalists from The Guardian and states that women and young children are being held in prison. One of the prisoners did not even know that Bashar al-Assad was in power because he was imprisoned under the command of his father, Hafez, who died in 2000. Also released was pilot Raghad al-Tatari, who refused to bomb the city of Hama during the uprising against Hafez al-Assad in the 1980s. It is stated that he has been in prison for 43 years. Many prisoners are reportedly extremely exhausted or losing their minds. It was stated that one of them, a medical student whose identity was identified by his relatives, disappeared 13 years ago when he was 20 years old.

Writer Bashar Bahum, 63, was released and told reporters he was scheduled to be executed on December 8 after serving seven months in prison. When his cell door opened, he thought there were guards there.

On December 8, 2024, the prison was captured by rebel forces advancing towards Damascus. The prison administration agreed to hand over the prison to the rebel forces in exchange for their safe withdrawal. After the capture, the prisoners remaining in the “white” part of Sednaya prison were released from their cells. However, it was noted that the detainees remained in the underground “red” section of the prison.

Allegedly, these floors are located behind metal doors and can only be reached by passing through a labyrinth of tunnels. The Damascus provincial government says the prisoners can be seen on CCTV cameras, but there are fears they could soon “suffocate” if the cells are not ventilated.

Authorities estimate that 100,000 people are trapped in the prison, but this figure has not yet been confirmed. The Damascus provincial government asked former soldiers of the Bashar al-Assad regime and prison staff via social networks to provide the rebel forces with the codes of electronic underground gates.

Syria’s White Helmets civil defense group said rebels sent “special rescue teams” assisted by a guide familiar with the prison’s layout to help free the detainees.

Videos appeared online showing hundreds of people gathering outside the prison in the hope of learning about their relatives. Rebels are supposedly breaking down concrete walls to get to the prisoners. So far the White Helmets have not confirmed the existence of secret doors and tunnels leading to underground facilities.

Bashar al-Assad has previously denied accusations that his regime killed thousands of prisoners in Sednaya prison in 2017 and used a secret crematorium to dispose of their remains.

He also described the US State Department’s claims that up to 50 people are hanged every day in this brutal military prison as “a new Hollywood story divorced from reality”.

Let us also remind you that Bashar Assad and his family fled to Moscow and were given asylum. Meanwhile, a collection of expensive cars was discovered in his palace. And there is a well-equipped network of tunnels under his brother’s house.