Syrian artist and former detainee Samar Kokash appealed to the military operations departments to search for detainees in mental hospitals, some of whom are believed to be in them.
Kokash, 52, said in a circulated video that while she was in Adra prison, the regime's executioners used to bring girls and women and say that they were going to Ibn Sina Psychiatric Hospital in Damascus, and they would put them temporarily when there were no official working hours in these hospitals.
Kokash said that two women were brought to the prison in the wing where she was, and one of them sat with her in the same room and was in good health, but her body was blue from the effects of beating and torture, and there was a pungent smell and the place where she was being held was unknown.
The artist who survived Assad's prisons continued that her hair was matted with blood and her body had impurities stuck to it and it was difficult to bathe her so she and the other prisoners had to cut part of her hair to clean it. She added that the aforementioned detainee was groaning in pain and continued: "After a while she came to me and said I know you are a Syrian actress and mentioned names that she said were the reason for her arrest."
Kokash added that she wrote the detainee's name on a piece of paper and smuggled it with her daughter who was visiting her to Adra prison so that a day would come when the stories of these girls would be revealed. She called on officials to reveal the insane asylums and try to reach those who were placed in them due to torture so that we might be able to reach people who have been forcibly disappeared and are in these places.
The mother of a missing person in the prisons of the former regime had mentioned that she had gone to Ibn al-Nafis Hospital for Mental Illnesses on a date and asked about the detainees who had arrived at the hospital in the past few days. According to the testimony of one of the nurses at the hospital, some of the families of the detainees recognized their sons, but their number was small, only 7 or 8. As for the detainees who suffer from a psychological condition that does not allow them to comprehend and be aware, they were sorted into several hospitals in the psychiatric department.
Koukash was arrested in Assad's prisons in late 2013 on the pretext of providing aid to the displaced and those fleeing the brutality of the regime. She was placed in Branch (215), to be tried on charges of financing terrorism for 5 years. She was released on February 28, 2017.
Fares al-Rifai - Zaman al-Wasl
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