Inside the hunt for hidden cells in Sednaya prison, Syria’s ‘human slaughterhouse’
GuardianDec 07, 2024
Rescuers End Search Operations Inside Syria's Sednaya Prison
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Above: People wait as teams investigate secret compartments at Sednaya Prison in Damascus, Syria, on Dec. 9, 2024. Image copyright: Emin Sansar/Contributor/Anadolu via Getty Images
The Facts
After the Sednaya prison near Damascus fell to anti-government forces over the weekend and thousands of prisoners were released, Syrians rushed to the facility to find and free missing family members.
Rescue organizations deployed specialized teams to search for prisoners potentially trapped in underground sections of the prison, offering a $5K reward for information about secret detention facilities. On Tuesday, rescuers ended the search after announcing they could not find any additional detainees.
Rights groups have claimed that between 5K and 13K people were executed at Sednaya from 2011 to 2015, with daily executions of 50 to 100 people occurring regularly.
The Spin
Narrative A
The liberation of Sednaya prison marks the end of a brutal era of systematic torture and execution, finally bringing justice to thousands of political prisoners who suffered under Assad's regime. The discovery of execution equipment and torture chambers proves the facility was nothing short of a death camp designed to eliminate any opposition to the government.
Narrative B
Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, the leader of the anti-government terrorists in Syria, has a dismal human rights record himself. Jolani jailed his rivals in torture dungeons while he was ruling Idlib and the same will be done now across all of Syria to anyone who opposes Jolani's extremist agenda.
