Freed Syrian prisoners return to their ‘death dormitory’

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By Mahmoud Hasano

DAMASCUS (Reuters) – Basim Faiz Mawat stood in the Damascus cell that his fellow prisoners used to call the “death dormitory”, struggling to believe that the system that abused him for so long had been overthrown and his suffering had ended.

“I came here today only to see that truly nothing lasts forever,” the 48-year-old said as he and another freed prisoner, Mohammed Hanania, visited the detention centre where their guards never showed mercy.

They were among thousands who spilled out of Syria’s prison system on Sunday after a lightning rebel advance overthrew President Bashar al-Assad and ended five decades of his family’s rule. Many detainees were met by tearful relatives who thought they had been executed years earlier.

“Every day in this room, which used to be called ‘Steel 1 – the death dormitory,’ one to three people would die inside every day,” Hanania, 35, told Reuters.

“The sergeant was — when he didn’t lose someone, when someone didn’t die from weakness, he would kill him. He took them to the toilets and hit them with the heel of his shoe on their heads.”

Hanania walked on past long rows of empty cells. Names of prisoners – Mohammed al-Masry, Ahmed and others – were scratched on walls with dates.

The floors were littered with rubble and discarded clothes. A row of blankets was still set out in one cell where prisoners had slept.

Both men looked up at an image on a wall of Assad, who is accused of torturing and killing thousands, abuses that were also rampant during his father Hafez’s reign of terror.

“No one could have believed this would happen,” said Mawat.

MASS EXECUTIONS

In another room, he stood beside a rusty blue ladder and described how he was blindfolded and forced to climb up the steps. Then his torturer would kick away the ladder and he would be suspended by his arms from the ceiling in agony.

“My shoulders were torn, and I couldn’t say a single word. No one could bear more than five or 10 minutes,” he said.

Rights groups have reported mass executions in Syria’s prisons. In 2017, the United States said it had identified a new crematorium at the Sednaya military prison on the outskirts of Damascus to dispose of hanged prisoners.

Syrians have flocked to the prisons looking for their loved ones. Some have been released alive, others have been identified among the dead and thousands more have not yet been found.

Syrian rebel leader Ahmad al-Sharaa – better known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani – the main commander of the rebels who toppled Assad, has said he will close the prisons and hunt down anyone involved in the torture or killing of detainees.

Assad fled to his ally Russia where he was granted asylum.

“At this stage, if everyone thinks about taking revenge, we have no solution other than to forgive,” Hanania said.

“But the criminal who has blood (on their hands) should be held accountable. I will leave my rights to be granted by God.”

(Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Andrew Heavens)