Exposing Syria’s Torture Regime: Revelations Post-Assad’s Reign
Handcuffed and squatting on the floor, Abdullah Zahra saw smoke rising from his cellmate’s flesh as his torturers gave him electric shocks. Then it was Zahra’s turn. They hanged the 20-year-old university student from his wrists until his toes barely touched the floor and electrocuted and beat him for two hours. They made his father watch and taunted him about his son’s torment. That was 2012, and the entire security apparatus of Syria’s then-President Bashar Assad was deployed to crush the protests that had arisen against his rule.
With Assad’s fall a month ago, the machinery of death that he ran is starting to come out into the open. It was systematic and well-organised, growing to more than 100 detention facilities where torture, brutality, sexual violence and mass executions were rampant, according to activists, rights groups and former prisoners. Security agents spared no one, not even Assad’s own soldiers. Young men and women were detained for simply living in districts where protests were held.
As tens of thousands disappeared over more than a decade, a blanket of fear kept the Syrian population silent. People rarely told anyone that a loved one had vanished for fear they too could be reported to security agencies. Now, everyone is talking. The insurgents who swept Assad out of power opened detention facilities, releasing prisoners and allowing the public to bear witness. Crowds swarmed, searching for answers, bodies of their loved ones, and ways to heal.
### The Horrors of Torture: Personal Accounts
The Associated Press visited seven of these facilities in Damascus and spoke to nine former detainees, some released on December 8, the day Assad was ousted. Some details of the accounts by those who spoke to the AP could not be independently confirmed, but they matched past reports by former detainees to human rights groups.
Days after Assad’s fall, Zahra – now 33 – came to visit Branch 215, a detention facility run by military intelligence in Damascus where he was held for two months. In an underground dungeon, he stepped into the windowless, four-by-four-metre cell where he says he was held with 100 other inmates. Each man was allowed a floor tile to squat on, Zahra said. When ventilators weren’t running – either intentionally or because of a power failure – some suffocated. Men went mad; torture wounds festered. When a cellmate died, they stowed his body next to the cell’s toilet until jailers came to collect corpses, Zahra said.
### Uncovering the Truth: Eyewitness Testimonies
Assad’s system of repression grew as civil war raged. Zahra was arrested along with his father after security agents killed one of his brothers, a well-known anti-Assad graffiti artist. After they were released, Zahra fled to opposition-held areas. Within a few months, security agents returned and dragged off 13 of his male relatives, including a younger brother and, again, his father. They were brought to Branch 215. All were tortured and killed. Zahra later recognised their bodies among photos leaked by a defector that showed the corpses of thousands killed while in detention. Their bodies were never recovered, and how and when they died is unknown.
Rights groups estimate at least 150,000 people went missing after anti-government protests began in 2011, most vanishing into Assad’s prison network. Many of them were killed, either in mass executions or from torture and prison conditions. The exact number remains unknown.
### The Aftermath: Seeking Justice and Closure
Even before the uprising, Assad had ruled with an iron fist. But as peaceful protests turned into a full-fledged civil war that would last 14 years, Assad rapidly expanded his system of repression.
Touring the site of his torture and detention, Zahra hoped to find some sign of his lost relatives. But there was nothing. At home, his aunt, Rajaa Zahra, saw the pictures of her killed children for the first time. She had refused to look at the leaked photos before. She lost three of her six sons in Branch 215 and a fourth was killed at a protest. Her brother, she said, had three sons, now he has only one.
“They were hoping to finish off all the young men of the country.”
As the world grapples with the atrocities committed under Assad’s regime, the mounting evidence will be crucial in seeking justice and holding accountable those responsible for the torture, brutality, and mass killings.
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This rewritten article highlights the harrowing experiences of survivors of Syria’s torture regime, shedding light on the atrocities committed under Assad’s rule. Through personal accounts and eyewitness testimonies, the article delves into the horrors faced by detainees, the impact on families, and the pursuit of justice in the aftermath of Assad’s fall. The resilience and courage of survivors in sharing their stories serve as a powerful reminder of the importance of accountability and healing in the face of unspeakable brutality.