A Return to Hell: Kurdish Survivor Revisits Saydnaya Prison 11 Years Later

Dec. 20, 2024

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) - After 11 years, Shabal, a Kurd, is returning to the same prison where he faced tormenting torture and suffering.

Shabal recalled his time inside the prison and told Kurdistan24’s correspondent Dilan Barzan the excruciating tale of his capture and imprisonment in the notorious Saydnaya prison near Damascus.

Accused of provoking others to demonstrate against the Assad regime, he was thrown into this prison in 2012 for the duration of a year and 5 months.

He remembered the harrowing scenes and experiences he had while in prison.

At first, as he retold his experience, he was taken to the underground floor of the prison, highlighting the bizarre welcoming ceremonies that the prison staff would hold for all the new arrivals.

However, the ceremony was far from a happy occasion as the new arrivals would be beaten ceaselessly and whipped more than 100 times on arrival.

Upon his arrival, Shabal recalled that he was put in a one-by-one bathroom with 6 others.

“We were taken here and put in a cell. Later we found out it was a bathroom. They forced us into the toilet and said that we remain there. We were 7 adults in a 1-meter space, we were completely squeezed in and it was really tight. We did not receive any food or water. There was a water tap in the toilet where we were held and it was dripping little water. So, what we did was to collect water in turns for hours using our palms so that we don’t die of thirst,” he told Kurdistan24 correspondent Dilan Barzan while standing in the same spot where he was detained by the former Assad regime security apparatus.

More than 10 days after the fall of the ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, ordinary people keep coming to the prison to seek any trace of their loved ones who vanished from the face of the earth in this prison.

The family members of the prisoners who were held in this ghastly prison have dug the ground of the prison in search of any underground cells, hidden cells, or any mass grave sites to find the remains of their loved ones.

According to them, the missing prisoners are those who were taken in Saydnaya following the eruption of widespread protest against the Bashar al-Assad government back in 2011. Their fate still remains unclear.

“Bashar al-Assad must be returned here and tried so that we can find some closure and justice. I had only a son who was arrested by his regime. We still have no clues of his fate,” a mother tearfully told Kurdistan24 correspondent.

“I just had that son. I loved him and now he is gone. I just want to see him one more time,” she kept weeping.

“From the start of the revolution, they captured my uncle. His fate remains unknown to us. There are hundreds of thousands like my uncle who had the same fate. We know that they were kept in the prison. However, we could not obtain any updates on their conditions. My uncle opposed Bashar a-Assad,” said another person who was searching for his uncle.

The Saydnaya prison is considered to be one of the most dangerous prisons in the world. It was initially built in 1987 and is situated 30 kilometers away from the Syrian capital Damascus. It could hold more than 20,000 prisoners, most of whom were the people who opposed Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

The tragic narratives of the nightmarish Saydnaya prison could rarely end for the time being. There are still thousands that are unaccounted for with no trace of them being found.

The Syrian civil defense teams continue their search efforts daily in the hope of discovering any clues of the prisoners' whereabouts.