{"id":191252,"date":"2024-12-09T08:17:10","date_gmt":"2024-12-09T08:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/09\/prisoners-freed-from-syrias-human-slaughterhouse-as-teams-investigate-hidden-underground-cells\/"},"modified":"2024-12-09T08:17:10","modified_gmt":"2024-12-09T08:17:10","slug":"prisoners-freed-from-syrias-human-slaughterhouse-as-teams-investigate-hidden-underground-cells","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/09\/prisoners-freed-from-syrias-human-slaughterhouse-as-teams-investigate-hidden-underground-cells\/","title":{"rendered":"Prisoners freed from Syria’s ‘human slaughterhouse’ – as teams investigate ‘hidden underground cells’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Thousands of people, including women and children, have been released from Syria’s infamous prisons – as civil defence teams work on freeing those who may still be detained in hidden underground cells.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After insurgents swept across the country in little more than a week to topple the Assad family’s<\/a><\/strong> half-century rule, families wept as they reunited with inmates held on political charges.<\/p>\n

At Sednaya prison near Damascus – a facility dubbed the “human slaughterhouse” by Amnesty International – women screamed with their children as their cells were opened.<\/p>\n

Syria latest as Assad flees to Moscow<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

“Don’t be afraid\u2026 Bashar Assad has fallen,” one of the rebels told them as he tried to rush streams of women out of Sednaya prison.<\/p>\n

As they left their cells a toddler could be seen walking down the corridor, having apparently been held with his mother.<\/p>\n

Tens of thousands of detainees have so far been freed from Syria’s prisons, according to Rami Abdurrahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.<\/p>\n

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\n People arrive to celebrate the fall of the Syrian government. Pic: Dia Photo via AP
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Syria’s prisons were notorious during the Assad rule, highlighted in 2013 by a defector known as Caesar who smuggled out photos showing evidence of torture, disease and starvation.<\/p>\n

At Sednaya, Amnesty and other groups claim dozens of people were secretly executed every week, estimating up to 13,000 Syrians were killed between 2011 and 2016.<\/p>\n

Some may still be behind bars at the prison, with teams so far unable to break into hidden underground cells.<\/p>\n

The civil defence force, known as the White Helmets, said their teams have begun a “mission” to access the lower layers.<\/p>\n

“The teams consist of search and rescue units, wall-breaching specialists, iron door-opening crews, trained dog units, and medical responders,” the group said.<\/p>\n

“These teams are well trained and equipped to manage such complex operations.”<\/p>\n

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\n Syrian opposition fighters celebrate in Damascus. Pic: AP
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Omar Alshogre, who was detained for three years and survived relentless torture, watched from abroad as videos showed prisoners fleeing.<\/p>\n

“A hundred democracies in the world had done nothing to help them,” said Mr Alshogre, a human rights advocate based in the US and Sweden.<\/p>\n

“And now a few military groups came down and broke open prison after prison.”<\/p>\n

Read more:
From eye doctor to dictator<\/a>
Who are the Syrian rebels?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Among those freed from one of Damascus’s prisons was writer Bashar Barhoum, who told the Associated Press he was due to be executed on Sunday.<\/p>\n

“I haven’t seen the sun until today,” the 63-year-old said, after seven months locked up.<\/p>\n

“Instead of being dead tomorrow, thank God, he gave me a new lease of life.”<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thousands of people, including women and children, have been released from Syria’s infamous prisons – as civil defence teams work on freeing those who may still be detained in hidden underground cells.\u00a0 After insurgents swept across the country in little more than a week to topple the Assad family’s half-century rule, families wept as they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191253,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/24\/12\/768x432\/skynews-syrian-damascus_6771001.jpg?20241208210253","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5587,44680,14337,4261,9649,40164,149890,85109,3933,2887],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191252"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191252"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":191254,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191252\/revisions\/191254"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}