A report by human rights watch presented unbelievable conditions of prisoner in Sednaya prison.
The report mentioned that number of prisoners reached to 14 thousands prisoners, most of them went through sham trial before a field military court and they have receive sentences of more than 15 years in prison.
Sednaya prison consists of the red prison and a new building called the white prison. The red one has 8 thousands detainees including women and children. While the white one has about 6 thousands detainees, 4 thousands of them from military background of different kinds of ranks. In regard to conditions prisoners live in, in general, after finishing the interrogations that may last for months, they are transferred to Sednaya prison, the moment they arrive, the humiliation and torture journey starts, where they are welcomed with swearing and hitting with sticks and thick wires, according to the report.
In the beginning, new detainees are put in singular cells for about a month to damage them emotionally and disturb their psychological balance, then they are transferred to common cells in the red prison, there, they stay in crowded cells, where communicable disease are highly spread. Talking must be in low voice inside the cells, and praying is prohibited, the report detailed.
Moreover, according to the report, Every day the cell’s guard needs to list at least 10 names of detainees to receive brutal torturing, which leads to death in many cases.
Military members who are detained in the white prison are forced to wear their uniform inside-out to humiliate them, and sometimes they are force to sit in a painful positions for long period of time, added.
One method is hanging from the ceiling by wrists, toes barely touching the ground, or complete suspension in the air with the entire weight on wrists, causing extreme swelling and discomfort.
The tyre method is used to immobilise the victims by folding them at the waist and having their head, neck, and legs put into a car tyre so that they cannot move to protect themselves from beatings on the back, legs, and head including by batons and whips
Falaqa is the way in which detainees are beaten on the soles of their feet with sticks and whips to the point that sometimes skin gets swollen and bleeding, making it impossible to walk.
Electrical chair or Electrocution is very painful and harmful method, in which Detainees are tied on a chair and get jolted repeatedly by electrical currents. The prongs were reportedly attached to sensitive places including genitalia, inside the mouth, and also on the neck, chest, hands, and legs.
At basat al-reeh, detainees are tied down to a flat board so that they become helpless to defend themselves with their heads suspended in the air. Then hands and feet are tied together. Sometime limbs are also stretched, or pulled, and sometimes the board folded in half so detainees’ faces touch their legs, both causing pain and further immobilization.
In regard to adolescent detainees, the report said that they reached to around 2500 one, they stay in the red prison and at women cells. “They are subject to different kinds of physical and emotional torturing, and most of them went through sham court before field military court, some of them were sentenced for 15 years of prison” detailed.
Moaz, a former detainee in Sednaya prison, told a story of Adnan Jizawi, a 16-year old boy from Baba-Amr in Homs, who was charged of spitting on statue of President Hafiz al-Assad. “He was brought to the prison square by order of First Adjutant, Fadi Slaiman, he was hand cuffed, then he was thrown on ground to be beaten, stabbed and wounded with knives and stepped on, till he passed away, I am sad because I was not able to do anything to help him” Moaz said.
In regard to health care in Sednaya prison, Moaz said: “there is no health care in prison, critical conditions are left to die slowly, wounds and injuries resulted from torture are left without care. I witnessed deaths of 28 people in my cell during the 19 months I had spent in prison, most cases were treatable, however who knock the door asking for medical help, receive 50 beat with a thick cable”
He then told a story of a detainee who insisted to see the doctor, then the nurse came and gave him an injection in the neck, later he was found dead , to discover that nurse injected him with air to kill him and pass a message to us all.
Many communicable disease spread among prisoners, like typhoid and tuberculosis and skin infection because of torturing.
“Food is not more than half a loaf of bread, which is old and dry. Sometime they deprive detainees from food for two days, and cut off water for 15 days as a method for emotional punishment” the report detailed.
Visiting is another journey of torture, where prisoners receive a session of interrogation after seeing visitors, and in his way to see visitors, he is beaten and swore at all the way to meeting place. The visit does not last more than 3 minutes, with a meter distance between the two wired barriers between detainees and visitors, report mentioned. The report added that visits are not allowed for detainees in the white prison, even the prison administration denies their presence inside.
In regard to execution, the report said that prison’s administration execute detainees every Monday and Thursday each week at night, then take the bodies away in close trucks to unknown place, parents usually are not informed of their sons' death.
However, Moaz reported that execution in done on daily basis for 40 detainees in average, and other detainees are forced to witness the process.
Moaz explained the way of execution saying: “legs of the detainee is tied to a truck, with another rope surrounds the neck and tied to another truck, then the trucks move quickly, which causes separation of the head from the body”
Prisoners are buried in a mass grave near the red prison, however, recently the administration started to burn the bodies, where residents nearby can see the smoke and smell the distinctive smell of burned flesh, report highlighted.
Moaz appealed to help may detainees who are waiting their death sentence and considered himself lucky to have left the prison alive.
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