Execution parties and inmates going mad with no oxygen in 'human slaughterhouse' jails

Daily Record

02-07-2025

WARNING: DISTRESSING CONTENT: Bashar Al-Assad's regime was brutal and deadly and it's estimated that 13,000 people were executed in just one of his prisons, where there were execution parties
Before Bashar Al-Assad's oppressive regime met its end, thousands had died or vanished after being dispatched to his notorious "human slaughterhouse" jails.
Inmates in one Syrian prison were subjected to a horrifying existence under Assad, with execution parties and floors strewn with corpses while the guards, indoctrinated and vicious, maintained a regime of terror. One facility in particular was linked to 13,000 deaths.
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The conditions for detainees were beyond inhumane. Packed so tightly they suffered from oxygen deprivation that led to psychosis, and receiving their meagre food portions out of buckets.
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Hussam, a military policeman at Saydnaya Prison, admitted to the BBC Two documentary Surviving Syria's Prisons: "When the prisoners heard my name, they would tremble. I beat them with all my strength. I showed them no mercy at all."
With Assad's rule overturned, people discovered the gruesome evidence of past horrors – files and photographs of inmates were scattered on the ground, some burnt in a failed attempt to obliterate the evidence of the atrocities carried out behind those walls. The footage shows devastated families sifting through the grim debris, searching for signs of their missing relatives, reports the Mirror US.
Al-Assad's reign since 2000 marked a brutal chapter for Syria, characterised by egregious human rights abuses and prisons that reinforced the atmosphere of dread, sustaining his grip on power for more than twenty years. In 2011, the demands for improved human rights that fueled the Arab Spring in Tunisia were brutally suppressed in Damascus, thrusting Syria into a devastating civil war.
Thousands were apprehended, including Shadi, and whisked away to clandestine facilities where torture was employed until they confessed—confessions that were often fabricated.
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On his second arrest with his brother, Shadi found himself in the infamous Air Force Intelligence branch in Harasta. Colonel Zain, who was second in command at the time, disclosed: "The place I worked in was very famous for its bloody practices and the number of detainees held there. We would pack 400 detainees in a room that was eight by ten metres."
He chillingly detailed the conditions: "Those who entered would walk over the bodies of the detainees - you couldn't see the floor. The interrogation room was right underneath my office. Everyone heard the screams. Everyone knew how the interrogations were conducted."
Shadi recounted the unbearable heat: "The temperature was around 40 degrees, because it was so crowded. We saw strange cases of disease amongst prisoners, I think, due to oxygen deficiency because of overcrowding. These psychotic episodes soon turned into physical symptoms."
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Within the facility was a changing area where inmates were forced to undress, while solitary confinement cells could incarcerate individuals for months or even years.
Demonstrating against a wall, Shadi described a brutal tactic used by the jailers: "They'd bring a cable and suspend us like this. This is the 'Ghost Method'. They'd pull us up and we'd be on our toes - you'd last 30 minutes then you'd pass out."
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Shadi recounted his harrowing experience being imprisoned with his brother, stating: "We were taken there and hung by our handcuffs from the pipes. It was unbearable - for almost 72 hours, three days, in the same position, without food or drink."
Hadi painfully remembered the torment they endured: "We were tortured for hours, and stopped keeping track of time," and added despondently, "If someone cried during a beating, the beating would get worse."
Amnesty has reported that as many as 13,000 prisoners may have been executed at this site alone within the first four years of the civil conflict.
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Hussam, who had served as a military policeman, revealed chilling orders from his superiors: "Our superiors would say, 'Torture them, don't let them sleep at night. Throw them a party... put them in a grave if you want to, bury them alive'."
He then divulged the grim routine he was part of: "When they'd call me to go and torture them, the prisoners would go back to their cells bloody and exhausted. On Wednesday mornings, we'd have an 'execution party. Our role during executions was to place the rope on the prisoner - only an officer could push the chair."
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Recalling one horrific event, Hussam said: "One time, the chair was pushed, but after 22 minutes he didn't die. So I grabbed him and pulled him downwards, so another guard who was bigger and stronger said, 'go I will do it.' Before he died he said one thing: 'I'm going to tell God what you did'."
Kamal, an army nurse, described the appalling state of deceased inmates: "Most of the bodies suffered acute weight loss, resembling a skeleton," and detailed further, "Most of them suffered from skin lesions and rashes due to lack of hygiene - and most of them had torture marks."
He disclosed: "It was forbidden to record the cause of death as torture. Even those killed from gunshots were recorded as heart and respiratory failure."
With the overwhelming number of casualties, mass graves became the grim answer. Investigators have uncovered at least 130 burial sites throughout Syria, casting doubt on the chances of identifying the countless victims interred within them.