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BEIRUT — For many years, the prospect of being freed from Assad’s prisons remained the ultimate dream for any of those incarcerated. The tension would rise as the sounds of clashes and shelling grew closer to the Syrian prison where you sat.
Like many former detainees, I had once believed that the “Free Syrian Army” — what today are an array of opposition militia. — would come to rescue us. But as time passed, that dream grew increasingly distant.
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In recent years, most of those who left Syria’s notorious prisons, myself included, were freed only through family payments to regime officers or through exchange deals. But the video that spread on November 29, capturing the moment of political prisoners’ release from Tariq Bin Ziyad prison in Aleppo by armed opposition factions, revived hope that we had thought had faded.
And the wave would quickly arrive in Damascus with the fall of the regime.
That first video didn’t just astonish me; it stirred emotions in many of my friends and former detainees. For us, it was a scene embodying hope we once thought impossible.
The scenario of escaping from Assad‘s prisons in this way, as we saw in the video, was something we often talked about whenever we heard clashes or shelling near security branches or civilian prisons.
My friend, Rowaida Kanaan, recalled her memories after watching the moments of the prisoners’ release. She remembered her experience in Adra Central Prison in 2014, where she was detained three times between 2011 and 2014. During that time, she was transferred between the criminal branch in Damascus, the State Security Branch known as “Branch 251,” and then to Adra Central Prison.
Rowaida said: “When I saw women coming out carrying their bags, I felt indescribable joy. I remembered how we always lived in a state of constant tension and hope. One time, clashes intensified around us in Adra prison, so we prepared small bags with our few belongings, ready for any moment the Free Army might come to liberate the prison.”
She paused: “Freedom came from where I least expected it.”
Syria’s struggle for freedom
After the opposition factions took control of Aleppo, Hama, Syria’s fourth-largest city, became the second to fall into the hands of the opposition. Hama, which has deep scars from the 1982 massacres committed by Hafez al-Assad and his brother Rifaat al-Assad against its people, is returning to the forefront today, carrying a new glimmer of hope.
From afar, we watched images and videos coming from Hama, with mixed feelings of joy, sadness, and fear. But the sight of the prisoners being freed had a different impact on the rapidly unfolding events.
The videos documenting the release of around 3,000 detainees, including Syrians and people of other nationalities such as Lebanese and Iraqis, from Hama prison revived the cause of the detained. These people, who had been forcibly disappeared for decades, now returned to mark a pivotal moment in the history of detainee issues.
In these moments, my friend Jumana Hassan, a survivor of enforced disappearance, wrote on her personal Facebook page: “The release of detainees from Syrian prisons is not a marginal detail, either personally or collectively. It is a landmark event in modern Syrian history, in the lives of those prisoners who regained their freedom today, and in the lives of their families who lived through years of pain and waiting. It has also rekindled hope in the hearts of the families of the forcibly disappeared and revived a dream that the world, in complicity with Bashar al-Assad‘s regime, had tried to kill in the souls of Syrians.”
Teams carry out investigation in secret compartments at Sednaya Prison after the fall of the Assad regime.
Freedom at any cost
Jumana, who spent almost ten months in enforced disappearance without trial, without a known prison, and without knowledge of what was happening outside, describes that period by saying: “Everything was unclear and unknown. I often wondered if the detainees would be killed without ever having the chance for freedom.”
Jumana was freed through an exchange she knew nothing about: “My deal was part of an operation that included Jabhat al-Nusra (now Hayat Tahrir al-Sham), specifically after the Maaloula nuns’ deal in 2014. I never had any loyalty to Jabhat al-Nusra and felt no gratitude toward them, but I just wanted to get out at any cost.”
She added: “Leaving the prison, for any detainee, is a moment beyond words. It mixes shock, joy, and confusion. Maybe I need more time to fully understand what really happened, but what I realize now is that freedom, no matter how it came, is a miracle we all waited for.”
For the past ten days, we’ve been watching from a distance the developments as the armed opposition factions forced the downfall of the Assad regime. The events have unfolded far beyond expectations, especially after years of disappointment and the recent return of relations between the regime and some Arab countries that reopened their embassies in Damascus.
Family reunions amid struggle
Amid the military action on the ground, the images showing displaced people returning to their homes and reuniting with their families, as well as the release of detainees from prisons in various provinces, have been particularly poignant. After Aleppo and Hama, we saw scenes of detainees being freed from prisons in Sweida, Daraa, and Deir Ezzor. And finally Damascus as well.
With each area or city liberated from Assad’s control, our anticipation grew for the moment when detainees would emerge from the regime’s prisons.
For those of us who know well those basements that saw torture, death, and the forced disappearance of thousands of civilians from various Arab nationalities, these scenes can only be described as pure joy, with the promise for their return to their families, and those waiting for them.
Worldcrunch 🗞 Extra!
Know more • Sednaya Prison, located near Damascus, was notorious for its brutal conditions and human rights abuses– as reported by Al-Jazeera. Once used as a detention center for political prisoners, it has since gained infamy for the widespread reports of torture, executions, and disappearances.
During the Syrian Civil War, Sednaya became a focal point for those detained for opposing the regime of Bashar al-Assad. The prison’s cramped, unsanitary conditions and lack of adequate medical care have led to widespread suffering among inmates, many of whom endure inhumane treatment for years.
The Syrian government has long denied allegations of abuse at Sednaya, but numerous testimonies from former prisoners, human rights organizations, and international watchdogs have documented the systemic violence. Prisoners often face solitary confinement, beatings, and even mass executions. Sednaya is also infamous for the use of secret trials, where inmates are often sentenced to death without due process or any legitimate legal proceedings. The prison remains a symbol of the harshness of Assad’s regime, where dissent is met with ruthless suppression.— Hagar Farouk (read more about the Worldcrunch method here).
Breaking the chains
It doesn’t matter who opens those prison doors; what matters is that the locked doors are broken, and the detainees are free. The scenes of families reuniting with their children, which flooded social media, leave no room for anything but empathy and tears, even if you have no one inside those prisons. The scene carries a gravity and impact that cannot be denied.
My friend, Sarmad al-Jilani, who was detained four times between 2011 and 2012, moving between Assad’s security branches in different provinces, says: “With everything that happened, even if the ones who liberated the prisons were demons, I couldn’t hold back my tears. After 12 years, I’m still unable to overcome the psychological and physical damage. Assad brought us to a point where we can no longer imagine how these people, who seemed to be resurrected after years of death, must feel. They have been given a new life.”
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