An ‘iron press’ that was allegedly used to crush and execute prisoners in Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s infamous Saydnaya Prison has been revealed in new videos shared by rebels as they liberate inmates.
The notorious prison near Damascus – nicknamed the ‘Human Slaughterhouse’ – is synonymous with heinous torture, executions and human rights abuses carried out by the Assad regime, which was toppled by Syrian rebel forces this weekend.
Amnesty International claims dozens of people were secretly executed every week in Saydnaya, estimating that up to 13,000 Syrians were killed between 2011 and 2016. Footage of what appears to be some kind of large hydraulic press within the prison is yet to be verified, but tales of torture, deprivation, starvation and executions at Saydnaya have been widely documented.
Syrian rebels are now locked in a race against time to free thousands of prisoners who are reportedly trapped in secret cells buried deep beneath the jail.
Although many of its inhabitants have already been freed by the rebels, thousands more are said to be locked in sealed cells several stories below the main prison building.
These levels are locked by special mechanisms with electronic keypads and are reportedly accessible only by a labyrinth of tunnels.
The Damascus Countryside Governorate claims the prisoners can be seen on CCTV, but there are fears they could soon ‘choke to death’ if the cells are unventilated.
The authorities gave a figure of 100,000 trapped beneath the prison, though this number has not been verified.
Syria’s ‘White Helmets’ civil defence group declared on X it has deployed ‘specialised emergency teams’ who are being helped by a guide familiar with the prison’s layout to aid the rebels in freeing the detainees.
This device uncovered inside the Saydnaya prison is said to be a hydraulic ‘iron press’ used to execute or torture inmates
Nooses were found after rebel fighters liberated the Sednaya Military Prison near Damascus
Amnesty International claims dozens of people were secretly executed every week in Saydnaya
Although many of its inhabitants have already been freed by the rebels, thousands more are said to be locked in sealed cells several stories below the main prison buildingAs Syria’s rebels swept towards the capital city last week, they made a point of liberating inmates from every jail they found, claiming most of the inhabitants were political prisoners of the Assad regime.
Over the past 10 days, insurgents freed prisoners in cities including Aleppo, Homs, Hama as well as Damascus.
Widely circulated footage has shown rebels ‘opening cells one by one’ by breaking down walls, and they are said to have rescued ‘hundreds of inmates, including women and young children’.
At Saydnaya, the terror experienced by the inmates was evident when the liberators arrived.
Women detainees, some with their children who were born behind bars, screamed as men broke the locks off their cell doors.Others seemed almost reluctant to leave their cells, fearing reprisals, while one man freed from the prison wasn’t able to speak when people asked him who he was.
‘Don’t be afraid – Bashar Assad has fallen! Why are you afraid?’ one of the rebels was heard saying as he tried to rush streams of women out of their jam-packed tiny cells in one clip.
Another heartbreaking video showed a toddler stumbling out of unlocked cell doors looking confused.
Syria‘s prisons are infamous for their harsh conditions.
Torture is systematic, say human rights groups, whistleblowers, and former detainees.
Secret executions have been reported at more than two dozen facilities run by Syrian intelligence, as well as at other sites.
In 2013, a Syrian military defector, known as ‘Caesar,’ smuggled out over 53,000 photographs that human rights groups say showed clear evidence of rampant torture, but also disease and starvation in Syria’s prison facilities.
Syria’s feared security apparatus and prisons did not only serve to isolate Assad’s opponents, but also to instill fear among his own people said Lina Khatib, Associate Fellow in the Middle East and North Africa program at the London think tank Chatham House.
‘Anxiety about being thrown in one of Assad’s notorious prisons created wide mistrust among Syrians,’ Khatib said. ‘Assad nurtured this culture of fear to maintain control and crush political opposition.’
This is the heartbreaking moment a toddler is seen walking out of a Syrian prison cell inside tyrant President Bashar al-Assad’s ‘human slaughterhouse’
Women and children have been freed from despot President Bashar al-Assad’s prison as Syrian rebels seize power of the countryThough some inmates were terrified when the rebels came to break the locks off their cell doors, many more were jubilant.
A torrent of videos circulating social media networks showed men, women and children screaming with delight as they poured out of prison walls to taste freedom for the first time in years.
They were boarded onto buses waiting outside the prison before being taken to their homes.
The rebels who were filmed releasing inmates at the Saydnaya prison said: ‘We celebrate with the Syrian people the news of freeing our prisoners and releasing their chains and announcing the end of the era of injustice.’
But Omar Saoud, a local activist, gave more details of the underground cells in which many more prisoners remain trapped.
‘Three floors underground, there is a prison known as the red prison, it has not yet been opened,’ he said.
‘They are not being able to open it because it requires a certain mechanism, and the soldiers and officers who used to be here have left.’
Amnesty International research said the Syrian authorities had committed crimes against humanity at Saydnaya, with thousands of inmates in the prison 30km north of Damascus believed to have been tortured and exterminated.
They determined that the violations committed at the brutal facilities over the last decade under Assad, which has seen over 10,000 political detainees vanish, was part of a systematic attack against civilians.
A rebel fighter walks down the stairs of the military prison near Damascus dubbed the ‘industrial torture chamber ‘ has reportedly seen between 5,000 to 13,000 inmates hanged since 2011, according to Assad previously denied accusations that his regime had killed thousands of detainees at Saydnaya and had used a secret crematorium to dispose of their remains in 2017.
He also branded the allegations by the US State Department of up to 50 people being hanged daily at the brutal military prison as ‘a new Hollywood story detached from reality’.
Journalist Samer Daboul, whose uncle was taken into custody for smuggling bread and vanished behind the prison walls in 2012, eagerly awaits news regarding the man who was ‘one of the most influential people in his life’
‘He taught me about Syria’s history, the revolution, and why it was necessary,’ he told the BBC.
‘I want him to know that the young man he inspired 12 years ago is now a journalist reporting on Syria. I want him to be proud of me.’
Several have taken to social media to encourage the rebels to reach the notoriously cruel prison and liberate its inmates, while others hope their relatives, who they have not seen or heard from – some in years – are still alive.
Meanwhile, many Syrian families skipped celebrations of the downfall of the Assad dynasty.
Instead, they waited outside prisons and security branch centres, hoping their loved ones would be there.
‘This happiness will not be completed until I can see my son out of prison and know where he is,’ said Bassam Masri.
‘I have been searching for him for two hours. He has been detained for 13 years,’ – since the start of the Syrian uprising in 2011 – she said.
Rebels struggled to control the chaos as crowds gathered by the Court of Justice in Damascus.
Heba, who only gave her first name while speaking to an AP reporter, said she was looking for her brother and brother-in-law who were detained while reporting a stolen car in 2011 and hadn’t been seen since.
‘They took away so many of us,’ said Heba, whose mother’s cousin also disappeared. ‘We know nothing about them… They (the Assad government) burned our hearts.’
A rebel fighter gestures in Homs countryside, after Syrian rebels pressed their lightning advance and later took control of the city Some Syrian prisoners freed this weekend were facing execution and have been granted a second chance at life.
Bashar Barhoum woke in his dungeon prison cell in Damascus at dawn Sunday, thinking it would be the last day of his life.
The 63-year-old writer was supposed to have been executed after being imprisoned for seven months.
But he soon realised the men at the door weren’t from Assad’s notorious security forces, ready to take him to his death.
Instead, they were rebels coming to set him free.
‘I haven’t seen the sun until today,’ Barhoum told an AP reporter after walking in disbelief through the streets of Damascus following his jailbreak thanks to rebel forces.
‘Instead of being dead tomorrow, thank God, he gave me a new lease of life.’
Barhoum couldn’t find his phone and belongings in the prison so set off to find a way to tell his wife and daughters that he is alive and well.
Syrian rebels reached Damascus over the weekend and overthrew President Bashar al-Assad’s government following nearly 14 years of civil war.
Assad fled to Moscow, where he and his family were granted asylum.
The successful uprising has raised hopes for a more peaceful future but also concerns about a potential security vacuum in the country, which is still split among armed groups.
