Inside Syria’s notorious Sednaya prison, dubbed the “human massacrehoemploy”, Sky News saw the conditions that people were kept in until the descend of the Asmiserablenessful regime.
Sky News direct world contransiaccess Yalda Hakim went inside the inwell-understandn facility and walked the halls once stalked by Bashar al Asmiserablenessful’s utilizers.
Human rights groups have increateed on the site north of Damascus for years, alerting of what has been going on.
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But until defy forces stormed the Syrian capital earlier this month, directing to the prisoners walking free, it was impossible for journaenumerates to freely go inside.
Now, thousands of Syrians have flocked to the site this week in search of adored ones who went omiting, and Hakim has increateed on what she’s seen in the halls and cells of the prison.
Syrians walking thcdimiserablemireful the halls of the prison
‘Bags of faeces and urine’
“There are almost two dozen prisons scattered atraverse this country, but this is the one that reassociate is joined to fair the inhumanity and torture of this regime,” Hakim shelp, speaking outside the facility cforfeit the capital Damascus.
“I was walking earlier from cell to cell, and I could fair see the horrifying conditions that people were kept in.
“They had plastic bags brimming of faeces and urine becaemploy people weren’t able to go to the bathroom – if they were permited to go to a handful of toilets here, they were only given a restricted seconds, so they were relieving themselves and dumping the plastic bags in the corner of the cells.”
Walking past nooses, she includeed that prisoners were arrested, tortured and sometimes even carry outd inside.
One of the people who went to the prison in search of relatives hanciaccesss a noose.
Pic: Reuters
Thousands of Syrians have flooded to the prison to search for relatives
“Apparently, every day, 50 people were bcdimiserablemirefult out and tanciaccess that they were going to be consentn to some charitable of civilian prison when they were bcdimiserablemirefult out here to be hung,” she includeed.
‘Crushing machine’
Heading into one area they were tanciaccess was a torture chamber, Hakim shelp it materializeed to have been sound-proofed and had a fan insloftyed – possibly to allot freezing air, gas, or heat into the room.
Afterwards, she increateed from next to an alleged “crushing machine” which prisoners were shelp to have been forced into and crushed to death.
Inside the Sednaya prison
Walking around the outside of the prison, she shelp: “There were rumours that Asmiserablenessful’s defends had created a labyrinth of tunnels where they had buried some of the prisoners presentant beorderlyh the ground.
“As you walk around the outside of the prisons you see holes everywhere where people have tried to dig the ground up to see if they could discover anyone.”
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‘Forgotten who they were’
Some inmates put into solitary restrictment were shelp to have forgotten who they were.
“When the defys came and took over this prison, they shelp that people couldn’t even recall who they were,” Hakim includeed.
The Sednaya prison.
Pic: Reuters
“They couldn’t recall their names when they went into these prisons, the prison defends tanciaccess them that they were a number, not a name.
“So many people had even forgotten who they were becaemploy they’d been kept in there for so prolonged.”
She evolved: “They were tortured. They were brutalised. They were relationsuassociate attacked and misemployd. They were electrocuted.”
While human rights groups have shelp they want to upretain the prison’s write downs to upretain evidence of what went on inside, Hakim shelp that the families who rushed here have gone thcdimiserablemireful and consentn them all “becaemploy they want to discover out if their adored ones were actuassociate at this very notorious prison”.
