(Zaman Al Wasl)- Inside a cold and dark cell in Homs’ Central Prison, the time had been frozen for four years and a half years for Hani al-Homsi (a pseudonym).
Al-Homsi was moved around between different military intelligence branches, but spent the longest duration in Saydnaya prison (18 months) and Homs’ Central prison after he dissented from the regime army one day in 2011.
Al-Homsi, who is from one of the villages in Homs’ western countryside, did not think that his dissent from the army would cost him all those years in prison. In August 2011, regime army units stormed his village, arrested him and transferred him to the State Intelligence branch in Homs where he was kept for 11 days during which he was investigated with and tortured. He was then transferred to the Military Intelligence branch to experience all kinds of torture including beatings and electrical shocks. Al-Homsi explained they kept him to get him to confess, but he refused to speak.
After more than two weeks in that branch, al-Homsi was transferred to the Military Security 191 Branch in Damascus. There he was subjected once more to electrical shocks, the German chair and other forms of torture which increased when the torturers found out he was a dissident army fighter. Al-Homsi was kept in the branch for four days before being transferred to the Military Security 148 Branch. He arrived at the 148 Branch with a bloodied head as the security personnel transporting him beat him with their rifles in the branch car. In the 148 Branch, he was accused of being a member of the Free Officers Brigade and was tortured again.
Later, he was thrown into a cold dark cell with the lingering smell of others’ blood, and he lay there in a pool of his own blood. One of the cell’s former occupants had written, “If your ability to withstand people’s oppression leaves you, remember Allah’s power over you,” on the wall. Al-Homsi said the phrase touched him deeply and he cried every time he read it, every time he woke up to the sound of the torture ongoing in neighboring cells. He explained, “The sound of torture is harder than the torture itself, and the psychological torture is harder than the physical.”
Four days later, al-Homsi was transferred to the Military Police Branch in al-Qaboun and from there to Sadnaya prison. He was accompanied by 14 men all from Jisr Ash Shugur who were arrested in connection with the case of the Jisr As Shugur police station. Rebels had blown up a bridge using barrels of dynamite killing 83 police members in mid-2011.
Al-Homsi described his detention in Sadnaya as the worst days of his life. He was singled out by the torturers because he was a dissident soldier. He received the largest share of torture among the group he came with as one torturer told the others, “Take care of him, the traitor, he is a member of the Free Officers Brigade.”
Al-Homsi’s then was placed naked except for his underwear in solitary confinement where he was left for three days without a cover. After that, he was moved to the prison’s red building where he was tortured again and then thrown into solitary confinement with one cover and a blue prisoner suit.
Due to the various beatings, there was pus coming out of his left foot, and his leg was swollen from knee to thigh. When he requested the jailer let him see the doctor, he was beaten again. For four days after that incident, he extracted the pus and fluids from his leg to feel relieved.
Through a small gap in the door of his solitary cell, he was able to identify the faces of his jailors among them the official responsible for the solitary cells a staff sergeant Wael Kashtu from the town of Nawa in Deraa. Al-Homsi explained that he learnt that the sergeant is from Nawa as every time the soldiers would tell him sometimes when a new detainee was brought in that, “this one is from your village.”
Eleven months after his detention in Sadnaya, al-Homsi was brought before a court in Damascus. His trial took no more than three minutes during which his hands were tied and the signs of torture were visible all over his body. He accused of vandalising public property, cutting off means of transport, and dissenting from the army. He was transferred in July 2012 to Homs’ Central Prison where he was placed in the security wing with the Islamists. Two weeks after his arrival, the prison witnessed its first insurrection since the start of the revolution due to one of the officers saying blasphemies in front of the prisoners who wanted to pray the tarawih prayers (Ramadan prayers) in the prison yard.
Al-Homsi witnessed 20 cases of prison insurrection caused by many reasons, but the most difficult was the insurrection in 2013 when the USA threatened to bomb the Syrian regime following a massacre where the regime used chemical weapons. The regime forces at the time tried to break into the prison and used poisonous gases and live ammunition against detainees. This insurrection terrorised detainees and their families.
According to al-Homsi, Homs’s Central prison includes around 600 detainees among them 16 who were sentenced in the field, and the criminal court convicted the remainder on charges of terrorism.
The prison is quasi-isolated from its administration, and there are no police forces present inside it. All the prison personnel and officers are present in the administration only and hide behind plated doors for fear of the prisoners. The humanitarian situation in Homs Central Prison is no different to other Syrian civilian prisons: there is electricity cuts, food and medical care are bad, and there is no heating in winter.
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