Writing by Faris al-Rifai; Translation by Rana Abdul
(Zaman Al Wasl)- The lingering time at the dark cell does not interrupt the sound of cough of one of the ex-detainees who got tuberculosis due to humidity everywhere in the Sednaya Prison.
Abu Mohamed al-Shami, a virtual name, an ex-detainee woke up every day to this scene in the prison. He lived the bitterness of the Syrian reality due to regime confiscation of political participation. Syrians did not find a venting channel to reject this political reality but taking refuge in religion. Religion which Iran used to achieve its scheme in promoting Shi’ism in the region.
As it is always the case, the mosque was the place connecting al-Shami to fellows sharing his call. He says to Zaman al-Wasl, “we were 5 people at the start. When we finish the Friday Prayer, we go to a house to talk and exchange thoughts and religious information related to our political, social, and cultural reality. We would talk about ways to change these realities.”
Abu Mohamed al-Shami used to work in a bookstore in Lebanon and he would frequently visit his family and friends in Syria. In 2007, two of his friends were detained. In 2008, Beirut events took place between Hezbollah Militia and Future Movement (FM, a Sunni Lebanese political movement led by Saad Hariri). Al-Shami said their work was stopped and he felt afraid because he saw cars without numbers with dark windows detaining a young man down his house. Al-Shami then returned to Damascus pressured by his family.
Following weeks from his return to Damascus, Mission Security Branch directed by Suhail al-Hasan surveilled his calls and movement. During a work meeting, Air Intelligence Security raided the place of the meeting and took him to Mazzeh military airport.
Armed personnel in a red Mercedes Station came into his place, asked for his ID and when they made sure he is the person wanted, they put him in the car. He was in between the two personnel who covered his head with a shirt.
After he arrived in the Mission Branch in the airport, Abu Mohamed was taken to the officer Suhail al-Hasan who shook al-Shami’s hands. Al-Hasan pressed his hands telling him “put yourself together, where is your determination?” He asked for a glass of water for al-Shami. Al-Shami refused to drink.
Officer Suhail al-Hasan briefed al-Shami on his file and an old photo of him. Al-Sham recalls, “they transferred me to the register office and then to interrogation branch prison. It was late. They walked me in to a solitary cell. I stayed in the cell for 36 hours without anyone talking to me. ”
After 36 hours, the bloody bath starts as al-Shami recounts. One personnel took him out from the cell to captain interrogator called Basel. He was blindfolded and handcuffed. Basel started asking him about information he knows and because he knew the persons Suhail al-Hasan provided information about were detained. He told the interrogator what happened, but the confession was not enough. Since al-Shami did not report, they accused him with hiding information.
In the second day of torture, al-Shami knew who reported him to the security, Nidal al-Mohamed and he is a Palestinian Syrian titled Abi Khalil. He was a clerk in Directorate of Supply and he had relations with chairman of security branches like Abdul Fattah Qudsiye and others.
Al-Shami said Nidal al-Mohamed’s mission was to establish an organization and report those who join to the regime. Al-Mohamed infiltrated Jund al-Sham (a Salafist Jihadist militia) in Madaya and Hama and reported 100 persons from Jund al-Sham to the regime.
Following al-Shami’s release from Sednaya, he reported Nidal al-Mohamed to Mutaz Billah Brigade (rebel group) in Daraa. However, the report was rejected because al-Mohamed provided bread for areas and he worked with Free Syrian Army (FSA). Later on, he contacted Jileen Coordination Committee and told them about al-Mohamed, but the committee responded that al-Mohamed is always present in Dawn Prayer and he cannot be a regime agent.
To return to al-Shami detention diary, when the interrogation was almost over, the branch personnel put him in a cell for four days demanding more information. They lost hope after two weeks to get more information and they stopped the interrogation. Al-Shami stayed in his cell restoring his skin as he described.
After a week, they transferred al-Shami to a communal cell where he stayed for around a month then he was transferred to Palestine Security Branch where he stayed four and half months. He was not tortured there. Then he was transferred to 215 Security Branch since Sednaya Prison was eventful and there was an uprising back then. He stayed for 7 and half months in the 215 Branch where he got tuberculosis along some persons in the cell. He was about to die of tuberculosis if God did not take care of him.
-End in the White Building-
Al-Shami finished his detention in the White Building A in Sednaya Prison. There, he was entered with his fellows in the usual way naked and bare-footed. Following the uprising in the prison, the 500 whips punishment. Al-Shami stayed for four months in Sednaya. Then, he was called again to Air Force Branch in Mazzeh where he stayed for 6 months in a hell like state end of 2009 and beginning of 2010. 72 detainees were put in a cell of 15 persons’ capacity.
Al-Shami recounts the detainees had to take off their clothes and stay in the underwear due to extreme heat and lack of air although it was January. When spring came, 4 persons died in one week due to lack of oxygen and heat, lack of sleep, not being able to use the toilet but once in 24 hours, outbreak of skin and venereal diseases. The branch chairman Jameel al-Hasan then interfered and opened a secret prison in the building of General Staff to decrease pressure on Mazzeh prison.
After his stay in the Mazzeh prison, he was returned to Sednaya to be treated from tuberculosis which caused him a calcified lung and three strokes. The main veins in his left foot were all blocked.
When he returned to Sednaya, he witnessed execution of several persons beginning on 22nd of April 2011, Al-Shami said that back then, the prison administration led collective execution ceremony for more than one person daily in the White Building.
The detainees used to distinguish these executions when guards and personnel disappear from all guarding points and prison ground and the advent of an ambulance for everyone who is sentenced with capital punishment in addition to advent of civil cars carrying coroners to supervise the execution beside the prison director General Mahfuz back then. Most of the ones executed were sentenced on the background of the events in Sednaya like Abu Huzayfa al-Urdni and al-Qa’ud and others.
Al-Shami was released following outbreak of the Syrian revolution due to cancellation of emergency law and Higher State Security Court chaired by Faiz al-Nuri who detainees describe him as a vampire. he was released because he was not sentenced with any felony or crime. Al-Shami still suffers the consequences of his detention similar to thousands of detained Syrians in Assad prisons.
(Zaman Al Wasl)- The lingering time at the dark cell does not interrupt the sound of cough of one of the ex-detainees who got tuberculosis due to humidity everywhere in the Sednaya Prison.
Abu Mohamed al-Shami, a virtual name, an ex-detainee woke up every day to this scene in the prison. He lived the bitterness of the Syrian reality due to regime confiscation of political participation. Syrians did not find a venting channel to reject this political reality but taking refuge in religion. Religion which Iran used to achieve its scheme in promoting Shi’ism in the region.
As it is always the case, the mosque was the place connecting al-Shami to fellows sharing his call. He says to Zaman al-Wasl, “we were 5 people at the start. When we finish the Friday Prayer, we go to a house to talk and exchange thoughts and religious information related to our political, social, and cultural reality. We would talk about ways to change these realities.”
Abu Mohamed al-Shami used to work in a bookstore in Lebanon and he would frequently visit his family and friends in Syria. In 2007, two of his friends were detained. In 2008, Beirut events took place between Hezbollah Militia and Future Movement (FM, a Sunni Lebanese political movement led by Saad Hariri). Al-Shami said their work was stopped and he felt afraid because he saw cars without numbers with dark windows detaining a young man down his house. Al-Shami then returned to Damascus pressured by his family.
Following weeks from his return to Damascus, Mission Security Branch directed by Suhail al-Hasan surveilled his calls and movement. During a work meeting, Air Intelligence Security raided the place of the meeting and took him to Mazzeh military airport.
Armed personnel in a red Mercedes Station came into his place, asked for his ID and when they made sure he is the person wanted, they put him in the car. He was in between the two personnel who covered his head with a shirt.
After he arrived in the Mission Branch in the airport, Abu Mohamed was taken to the officer Suhail al-Hasan who shook al-Shami’s hands. Al-Hasan pressed his hands telling him “put yourself together, where is your determination?” He asked for a glass of water for al-Shami. Al-Shami refused to drink.
Officer Suhail al-Hasan briefed al-Shami on his file and an old photo of him. Al-Sham recalls, “they transferred me to the register office and then to interrogation branch prison. It was late. They walked me in to a solitary cell. I stayed in the cell for 36 hours without anyone talking to me. ”
After 36 hours, the bloody bath starts as al-Shami recounts. One personnel took him out from the cell to captain interrogator called Basel. He was blindfolded and handcuffed. Basel started asking him about information he knows and because he knew the persons Suhail al-Hasan provided information about were detained. He told the interrogator what happened, but the confession was not enough. Since al-Shami did not report, they accused him with hiding information.
In the second day of torture, al-Shami knew who reported him to the security, Nidal al-Mohamed and he is a Palestinian Syrian titled Abi Khalil. He was a clerk in Directorate of Supply and he had relations with chairman of security branches like Abdul Fattah Qudsiye and others.
Al-Shami said Nidal al-Mohamed’s mission was to establish an organization and report those who join to the regime. Al-Mohamed infiltrated Jund al-Sham (a Salafist Jihadist militia) in Madaya and Hama and reported 100 persons from Jund al-Sham to the regime.
Following al-Shami’s release from Sednaya, he reported Nidal al-Mohamed to Mutaz Billah Brigade (rebel group) in Daraa. However, the report was rejected because al-Mohamed provided bread for areas and he worked with Free Syrian Army (FSA). Later on, he contacted Jileen Coordination Committee and told them about al-Mohamed, but the committee responded that al-Mohamed is always present in Dawn Prayer and he cannot be a regime agent.
To return to al-Shami detention diary, when the interrogation was almost over, the branch personnel put him in a cell for four days demanding more information. They lost hope after two weeks to get more information and they stopped the interrogation. Al-Shami stayed in his cell restoring his skin as he described.
After a week, they transferred al-Shami to a communal cell where he stayed for around a month then he was transferred to Palestine Security Branch where he stayed four and half months. He was not tortured there. Then he was transferred to 215 Security Branch since Sednaya Prison was eventful and there was an uprising back then. He stayed for 7 and half months in the 215 Branch where he got tuberculosis along some persons in the cell. He was about to die of tuberculosis if God did not take care of him.
-End in the White Building-
Al-Shami finished his detention in the White Building A in Sednaya Prison. There, he was entered with his fellows in the usual way naked and bare-footed. Following the uprising in the prison, the 500 whips punishment. Al-Shami stayed for four months in Sednaya. Then, he was called again to Air Force Branch in Mazzeh where he stayed for 6 months in a hell like state end of 2009 and beginning of 2010. 72 detainees were put in a cell of 15 persons’ capacity.
Al-Shami recounts the detainees had to take off their clothes and stay in the underwear due to extreme heat and lack of air although it was January. When spring came, 4 persons died in one week due to lack of oxygen and heat, lack of sleep, not being able to use the toilet but once in 24 hours, outbreak of skin and venereal diseases. The branch chairman Jameel al-Hasan then interfered and opened a secret prison in the building of General Staff to decrease pressure on Mazzeh prison.
After his stay in the Mazzeh prison, he was returned to Sednaya to be treated from tuberculosis which caused him a calcified lung and three strokes. The main veins in his left foot were all blocked.
When he returned to Sednaya, he witnessed execution of several persons beginning on 22nd of April 2011, Al-Shami said that back then, the prison administration led collective execution ceremony for more than one person daily in the White Building.
The detainees used to distinguish these executions when guards and personnel disappear from all guarding points and prison ground and the advent of an ambulance for everyone who is sentenced with capital punishment in addition to advent of civil cars carrying coroners to supervise the execution beside the prison director General Mahfuz back then. Most of the ones executed were sentenced on the background of the events in Sednaya like Abu Huzayfa al-Urdni and al-Qa’ud and others.
Al-Shami was released following outbreak of the Syrian revolution due to cancellation of emergency law and Higher State Security Court chaired by Faiz al-Nuri who detainees describe him as a vampire. he was released because he was not sentenced with any felony or crime. Al-Shami still suffers the consequences of his detention similar to thousands of detained Syrians in Assad prisons.
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