Syria’s White Helmets director says Sednaya Prison was ‘hell’ for detainees

Syrian rescuers are searching through the notorious Sednaya Prison near Damascus to find and free detainees as they uncover abuses that took place during the rule of ousted President Bashar al-Assad.

“[Sednaya] doesn’t give the impression that it is a prison. It is a human slaughterhouse where human beings are being slaughtered and tortured,” al-Saleh told Al Jazeera.

He added that rescuers saw bodies in ovens, saying daily executions took place in the complex.

Opposition fighters entered the facility early on Sunday and released thousands of prisoners as they pushed towards Damascus in a blistering offensive that ended in the collapse of the al-Assad government and the end of his family’s 50-year rule over Syria.

For al-Assad’s critics, Sednaya Prison represents the brutality of the Baathist government, and its end marks a new chapter for Syria.

“We announce the end of the era of tyranny at Sednaya,” the Syrian opposition said on Sunday as its fighters stormed the facility.

Al-Saleh told Al Jazeera that rescuers found signs of deadly abuses at the prison.

“At Sednaya and other similar prisons, executions on a daily basis were taking place. There were dead bodies in ovens,” he said.

Al-Saleh added that one former detainee told him he was set to be executed on the same day he was freed. He said freed prisoners are in a dire health condition.

According to the White Helmets chief, 50 to 100 people were executed daily inside the prison, which largely housed political prisoners who opposed al-Assad’s rule.

A 2017 report by Amnesty International said “murder, torture, enforced disappearance and extermination” had been widespread at the prison since 2011 when the country’s war broke out. The rights organisation found that these practices amount to crimes against humanity.

A 2014 report by Human Rights Watch corroborated accounts from former detainees of the prison about mass deaths at the facility.

The Syrian White Helmets have helped free 20,000 to 25,000 prisoners from Sednaya as of Monday, al-Saleh said, adding that tens of thousands more remain unaccounted for.

Freed prisoners have described areas of the prison that require special codes to reach and secret basements still housing detainees, but al-Saleh said no “hidden chambers” have been found within the complex, adding that investigations and the search at Sednaya as well as other prisons remain under way.

“We will pay for anyone who can give us information about hidden prisons in any part of Syria,” he said.