Syrian rescuers search a jail synonymous with the worst atrocities of ousted President Bashar al-Assad’s rule [Emin Sansar/Anadolu]Published On 9 Dec 20249 Dec 2024
Rescue teams and relatives of disappeared people in Syria are searching for their loved ones at the notorious Sednaya Prison in Damascus after the fall of President Bashar al-Assad’s government.
An intense search was under way at the jail on Monday for “hidden underground cells, reportedly holding detainees”, said the White Helmets rescue group, which dispatched emergency teams to the facility.
Al-Assad’s police state was known for generations as one of the harshest in the Middle East, holding hundreds of thousands of political prisoners.
Bewildered and elated prisoners poured out of Syrian jails on Sunday as al-Assad’s government collapsed. They shouted with joy as they emerged from one of the world’s most notorious detention systems.
Throughout Syria’s war, which began in 2011, security forces held hundreds of thousands of people in detention camps where international human rights organisations said abuses were rampant. Families were often told nothing of the fate of their loved ones.
As rebels seized one city after another in a blistering eight-day campaign, prisons were often among their first objectives. The most notorious prisons in and around Damascus itself were finally opened on the uprising’s final night and the early hours of Sunday.
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All across Syria, families wept as they were reunited with children, siblings, spouses and parents who vanished years ago into the impregnable gulag of the al-Assad dynasty’s five-decade rule.
Al-Assad fled Syria as rebels swept into the capital, bringing to an end five decades of brutal rule by him and his father over a country ravaged by one of the deadliest wars of the century. [Emin Sansar/Anadolu] Advertisement Emergency service volunteers from the White Helmets said on December 9, 2024, that they were searching for secret doors or basements in Sednaya Prison, looking for any detainees who might be trapped. [Emin Sansar/Anadolu]”We are working with all our energy to reach a new hope, and we must be prepared for the worst,” the White Helmets said in a statement. [Emin Sansar/Anadolu]Al-Assad’s government oversaw a crackdown on an uprising that erupted in 2011, sparking a war that killed hundreds of thousands of people and forced millions of Syrians to flee their homes. [Emin Sansar/Anadolu]Aida Taha, says she is “roaming the streets like a madwoman” in search of her brother, who was arrested in 2012. She went to Sednaya, where she believes some prisoners are still underground. “The prison has three or four underground floors,” Taha said. “They say that the doors won’t open because they don’t have the proper codes.” [Emin Sansar/Anadolu]Despite all the uncertainties for the future, the joy In central Damascus on December 9, 2024, was palpable. “It’s indescribable. We never thought this nightmare would end. We are reborn,” 49-year-old civil servant Rim Ramadan tells the AFP news agency. [Emin Sansar/Anadolu] Advertisement During the offensive launched on November 27, rebels wrested city after city from al-Assad’s control, opening the gates of prisons along the way and freeing thousands of people, many of them held on political charges. [Emin Sansar/Anadolu]In 2017, Amnesty International accused Syrian authorities of “quietly and methodically” killing detainees at Sednaya Prison. [Emin Sansar/Anadolu]Syrians are seen waiting for news about their relatives amid reports of a secret compartment at Sednaya Prison. [Emin Sansar/Anadolu]
