In Syria’s Sednaya prison, waiting for loved ones: Many missing, many dead

Syrian detainees return home, but many remain missing or presumed dead amid grim discoveries in Sednaya Prison.

By RIZIK ALABI/THE MEDIA LINE DECEMBER 18, 2024 17:19

PEOPLE CELEBRATE the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad, in Sednaya, Syria, this week. The spectacular collapse of the Assad regime has introduced both uncertainty and opportunity, the writer notes. (photo credit: AMMAR AWAD/REUTERS)

Following Bashar Assad’s fall from power in Syria, thousands of detained Syrians have been released from prison. Yet tens of thousands of imprisoned individuals are still missing, with many presumed dead. 

When search operations began in Sednaya military prison, one woman from Idlib named Naima was hopeful that her son would be found alive there, but by the time the search came to an end, there was no sign of her son, who had been imprisoned for years.

Similarly, a man named Mahmoud was unable to locate his father, who was imprisoned in 2011. “Thirteen years of patience and hope to see him again, 13 years imagining the moment of reunion,” he told The Media Line. “How did they kill you? The revolution has triumphed, father, but they killed you.”

Syrian opposition factions have released around 3,000 former detainees from Sednaya Prison alone over the past week. Social media platforms are flooded with images and videos of released Syrians who were detained in the regime’s prisons for being associated with the Syrian revolution.

Rumors quickly spread about large numbers of detainees on their way to freedom, but only a small portion of the anticipated detainees were found.

An anti-government fighter steps on a torn up portrait of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in Hama, a day after rebels captured the central-west city, on December 6, 2024. (credit: Mohammed AL-RIFAI / AFP)

Detention to silence opposition

From 2011 until the end of Assad’s rule, Syrian authorities used detention as a tool to suppress and silence opposition. Numerous accusations have surfaced about massacres committed inside Syrian prisons, which were substantiated by a leaked group of photos known as the Caesar Files—tens of thousands of photos taken between 2011 and 2013 showing detainees killed in Syrian prisons.

The release of those files, named for the pseudonymous leaker, led the US to pass the bipartisan Caesar Act in December 2019, which imposed sanctions on Assad for his crimes against Syrian civilians.

Syrians believe that the deposed regime detained hundreds of thousands of people. According to the Syrian Network for Human Rights, the Assad regime detained approximately 137,000 individuals since 2011, including more than 96,000 forcibly disappeared people.

Naima told The Media Line that her son disappeared under mysterious circumstances while working in Damascus in 2011. Later, they learned that he had been detained by the Syrian regime. She had hoped to find him after the regime’s fall, but that did not happen.

“It seems he is dead. His son will never see him now, nor will his wife,” she said, pointing to his photograph in obvious pain. “My son did nothing wrong. His only crime was being from Idlib.”

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Another man named Ehab was momentarily jubilant upon hearing about the release of his cousin, who had been detained since 2012. His joy turned to despair when it was revealed that the release involved someone else with the same name.

When opposition forces entered Sednaya Prison, they discovered bodies of detainees bearing signs of brutal torture. Among them was Mazen al-Hamada, a Syrian activist who was first imprisoned and tortured between 2011 and 2013. After being released and fleeing to Europe, al-Hamada returned to Syria in 2020 and was imprisoned once again. Photos suggest he was tortured to death.

Gruesome deaths at Sednaya Prison are nothing new. According to a 2017 Amnesty International report, over 13,000 people were extrajudicially executed at the prison between 2011 and 2015.

Dr. Ahmed al-Shaher, a Syrian physician, told The Media Line that the bodies discovered in Sednaya appeared to have died recently, with signs of torture evident. These signs suggest that the regime carried out routine torture and execution campaigns.

As the detainee search efforts came to an end, Syrians held mourning ceremonies for their loved ones across the country. The director of the Syrian Network for Human Rights announced that those not found can officially be considered deceased.

The American citizen Travis Timmerman, who had been detained in a Syrian prison, was discovered by chance in the search efforts. Detainees with Jordanian, Lebanese, Iraqi, and Turkish citizenship were also freed. Other than those, no foreign nationals were found. That’s difficult news for the family of Austin Tice, an American journalist who’s been detained in Syria since 2012.

Previous information provided to The Media Line suggests that Tice is still alive, but his whereabouts remain unknown. The Syrian Political Affairs Administration announced last week that search operations were ongoing to determine his location.

In addition to these discoveries, new claims have emerged regarding previously hidden mass graves. Mouaz Moustafa, head of the US-based Syrian Emergency Task Force, stated on Monday that a mass grave near Damascus may hold the remains of at least 100,000 people. He described the site in Al Qutayfah, about 25 miles north of the capital, as one of five mass graves he has documented. Although the claim could not be independently verified, Moustafa said victims likely include Syrians as well as American, British, and other foreign nationals, adding further weight to longstanding allegations of extrajudicial killings committed during Assad’s rule.