‘I haven’t seen the sun until today’: The prisoners released from Assad’s notorious jails in Syria
Bashar Barhoum, 63, was one of the tens of thousands of prisoners freed from Bashar al-Assad’s prisons in Syria, as civil defence teams investigate underground cells to free more detainees.
After seven months in prison, Mr Barhoum was expecting to be executed, when when he woke in his Damascus prison cell at dawn Sunday to men at the door.
But he quickly realised they were seeking to free him and were not Assad’s notorious security forces.
Rebels broke into prisons and security facilities to free political prisoners – and people who disappeared – in the years since civil war erupted in 2011, as they swept across Syria in a lightning offensive that ended fifty years of Assad family rule.
Videos shared on social media showed dozens of prisoners running in celebration after the rebels released them, some barefoot and others wearing little clothing. One of them screams in celebration after he finds out that the government has fallen.
“I haven’t seen the sun until today,” Mr Barhoum told the Associated Press before he set off to find a way to tell his wife and daughters that he’s alive and well.
“Instead of being dead tomorrow, thank God, he gave me a new lease of life.”
Assad’s prisons garnered an infamous reputation for their harsh conditions. Human rights groups, whistleblowers and former detainees reported systematic torture, secret executions, disease and starvation. The Assad regime always denied this, but In 2013 a defector known as Caesar smuggled out 53,000 photos.
“Don’t be afraid — Bashar Assad has fallen! Why are you afraid?” said one of the rebels as he tried to rush streams of women out of tiny cells of the notorious Saydnaya prison in Damascus.
Described by Amnesty International as a “human slaughterhouse”, an estimated 13,000 Syrians were killed in Saydnaya prison between 2011 and 2016, with dozens killed every week.
Assad’s security apparatus and prisons served to isolate his opponents and instill fear among his own people, according to Lina Khatib of London think tank Chatham House.
“Anxiety about being thrown in one of Assad’s notorious prisons created wide mistrust among Syrians,” Ms Khatib said. “Assad nurtured this culture of fear to maintain control and crush political opposition.”
As well as Damascus, the rebels freed prisoners in Aleppo, Homs and Hama, as families wept, waiting outside prisons hoping to be reunited with their loved ones.
But some families are still seeking out relatives who have been missing for years.
