"Human Slaughterhouse"... What do you know about Sednaya Prison near Damascus?

One of the most fortified Syrian military prisons, it is called the "human slaughterhouse" due to the torture, deprivation and overcrowding inside, and it was nicknamed the "red prison" due to the bloody events it witnessed during 2008.

the site

The prison is located near the Saidnaya Monastery, 30 kilometers north of the capital Damascus. It was built in 1987 and is divided into two parts. The first part is known as the “Red Building,” which is designated for political and civilian detainees, while the second part is known as the “White Building,” which is designated for military prisoners.

Design

Sednaya Prison has a unique design that makes it one of the most fortified military prisons. It consists of three large buildings that meet at a point called “the pistol.”

Each building consists of 3 floors, each with two wings, and each wing contains 20 collective dormitories measuring 8 meters long and 6 meters wide, arranged in a single row away from the windows, but every 4 of them share one ventilation point.

Pistol Point is the area where the three buildings meet, and is the most fortified point in the prison, where the ground rooms and solitary confinement cells are located.

There are also guards around the clock to monitor the prisoners and prevent them from seeing any features of the prison building or the faces of the guards.

Insurance and immunization

A report issued by the Association of Detainees and Missing Persons in Sednaya Prison revealed three levels that the prison’s security system goes through. The Military Police (the Third Division of the Syrian Army) is considered the first line of defense to protect the outer walls from security threats and prevent detainees from escaping.

Units of the 21st Brigade of the Third Division are responsible for securing the interior of the prison and monitoring and disciplining detainees. The prison is surrounded by two minefields, one internal and one external, one anti-personnel and the other anti-tank.

Prisoners in Sednaya suffer the most severe types of torture, including continuous beatings with hoses, plumbing pipes, batons, and other tools.

Prisoners use what is known as the “flying carpet” for torture, which is a device that includes a foldable board to which the prisoner is tied, face up, and then each part of the board is moved towards the other.

Prisoners in Sednaya are denied health care or medication, and soldiers threaten women with rape in front of their relatives if they do not confess to what has been attributed to them (according to Amnesty International). Cases of rape and sexual harassment of men and women have also been recorded.

A survivor of Saydnaya prison told the organization that prisoners were forced to choose between their death or the killing of a relative or acquaintance.

salt rooms

These are rooms with a floor filled with salt to a height of about 20 to 30 centimeters, and are used to psychologically torture detainees. The bodies of detainees who died as a result of torture or starvation are also placed in them.

A number is written on each body, and it is placed in salt for 48 hours, then transferred to Tishreen Military Hospital in a detainee transport vehicle to examine the body and issue a death certificate, then it is sent to the prisons branch of the military police and then to the mass graves.

The first rebellion in Sednaya prison

The lives of Saydnaya prisoners changed slightly during the period when a colonel named Louay Yousef was in charge of the prison’s general administration. He was described as an “understanding and open-minded” person who tried to change the prison’s general policy. He allowed prisoners’ families to visit, met prisoners personally and chatted with them, and promised to improve treatment inside the prison. One of his most prominent decisions was to integrate prisoners into rooms and dormitories without regard to the political charges against them.

He brought together a number of "radical Islamists" with others accused of spying for Israel, which created tension among the prisoners and resulted in a murder at the end of 2005.

Sednaya prison entered a new phase of severity and firmness, and severe punishments were imposed on the Islamists in it. A new director named Ali Khair Beyk was appointed, who increased the severity of the repressive measures and punishments, most notably cutting off electricity to the entire prison for several months.

In March 2008, a prison guard was surprised to find an electrical line inside one of the dormitories. While trying to find out its source, the prison director came and began torturing the head of each dormitory wing, followed by the rest of the prisoners. He also sent many prisoners to solitary confinement cells.

One of the prisoners managed to escape from his torturers and was helped by prisoners standing next to him. A clash began between them and the jailers, the cell doors were opened and the situation got out of control.

The investigation papers showed that the rebellion coincided with Damascus’ preparations to host the Arab Summit on the 29th of the same month, and the authorities tried to address the matter without drawing attention, as a number of security service leaders arrived at Sednaya to understand the situation and requested a meeting with representatives of the prisoners.

They soon reached an agreement to end the rebellion, which included ending Ali Khair Bey's arbitrary treatment of prisoners, opening up visits, improving detention conditions, and reviewing trials.

The state agreed to the prisoners' demands, and thus ended what became known as the first rebellion, which lasted only one day, and then the agreement between the state and the prisoners came into effect.

Rebellion for several months

Later, the prison was filled with a state of rebellion, chaos and lack of discipline among the prisoners, which lasted for several months until the dawn of July 5, 2008, when the authorities decided to transform Sednaya into a disciplinary prison.

The prison was completely evacuated except for 20 people who refused to leave, but after the state combed the prison, it killed a number of them and arrested others. Then the rebellion, which lasted for about 9 continuous months, ended. Later, more than 100 people were summoned for investigation on charges of leading the rebellion and were brought before the State Security Court, which sentenced 6 of them to death. As a result of these events, Sednaya became known as the “Red Prison.”

Source: Al Jazeera