Hope turns to despair as Syria's infamous 'Slaughterhouse' prison found empty after Assad's fall

Dec. 10, 2024

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – The Associated Press has reported that many people who seek their loved ones from the notorious prison Saydnaya, nicknamed ‘slaughterhouse’, are left emptyhanded, with no trace of them found so far.

The report suggested that the notorious military prison was found largely empty on Monday as anxious relatives sought any traces of their loved ones who vanished once they were taken to the facility during former President Bashar Assad's ruthless regime.

In the wake of the fall of Damascus, it is reported that tens of thousands of Syrians gathered at the doors of the hauntingly mammoth prison complex, yearning to reunite with family members who disappeared into its secretive cells.

Regardless of the liberation of dozens of prisoners when rebels first captured the complex on Sunday, the ensuing search has borne only lingering desolation, leaving families wrestling with renewed torment.

"Where is everyone? Where are everyone's children? Where are they?" wept Ghada Assad, who has spent 13 years searching for her brother, imprisoned in 2011 during the early stages of the protests against Assad's brutal rule.

"I prayed that they would reach Damascus just so they can open up this prison," she said, referring to the opposition forces’ lightning offensive that began with the seizure of Aleppo on Nov. 30.

The White Helmets civil defense organization sent five teams, including cadaver dog units, to assist in the widespread search.

According to their spokesperson, Ghayath Abu al-Dahab, they found documents that specified that more than 3,500 people were held in Saydnaya as recently as three months ago.

However, the search which is in progress currently has yielded only empty cells, despite desperate efforts by families to discover the alleged top-secret confines within Saydnaya using sledgehammers, shovels, and drills.

Saydnaya's status as the epicenter of Assad's ruthless security apparatus is well-documented.

Amnesty International assessed in 2017 that between 10,000 and 20,000 people were imprisoned there, that were destined for "extermination."

The human rights organization stated systematic torture, mass executions, and deaths from disease and starvation.

Firas al-Halabi, liberated when the opposition forces initially breached on Sunday, gave an unsettling firsthand account of life inside the prison.

"During our time in the yard, there was beating. When going to the bathroom, there was a beating... Your life is one big violation to them," he recalled, describing four years of torture, malnutrition, and witnessing mass executions.

The efforts to find any inmates within this prison concluded late Monday night when the White Helmets stated they had found no hidden areas in the facility.

"We share the profound disappointment of the families of the thousands who remain missing and whose fates are unknown," their statement read.

The mystery of Saydnaya's missing prisoners adds to the estimated 150,000 people imprisoned or vanished in Syria since 2011.

Civil defense officials propose that captives may have been moved to other facilities, as "the regime had turned all of Syria into a big prison," including security agencies, military facilities, and even universities.

For families like Noha Qweidar, who lost her husband to cold-blooded summary execution in 2013, the empty cells of this haunting prison offer no closure.

"I heard that (he was executed) but I still have hope he is alive," she said, echoing the feelings of innumerable others who remain hopeful and continue to search for answers about their missing loved ones.