Syrian rescue workers end search for secret cells in notorious prison

White Helmets rescue workers say they have concluded their search for possible detainees in secret cells or basements at Syria’s notorious Saydnaya military prison without finding anyone.

Special teams, aided by K9 dog units and individuals familiar with the layout, searched the prison and its grounds on Monday as crowds gathered in hopes of finding their missing relatives.

“The search did not reveal any exposed or hidden areas within the facility,” a statement from the White Helmets said.

The news came as rebel fighters said they had found about 40 bodies with signs of torture in a hospital morgue in the capital, Damascus.

Meanwhile, the leader of the Islamist militant group whose offensive led to the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad on Sunday said former senior officials who oversaw the torture of political prisoners during the country’s 13-year civil war should be punished. Will be held accountable.

Abu Mohammed al-Jolani said the names of the officers would be published and demanded the repatriation of those who have fled to other countries. He said a reward would also be given to anyone providing information about his whereabouts.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, says some 60,000 people have been tortured and killed in Assad government prisons.

Human rights groups say more than 100,000 people have disappeared since Assad ordered a brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protests in 2011, sparking the civil war.

The Turkey-based Association of Detainees and the Missing in Sednaya Prison (ADMSP) said in a 2022 report that the prison “effectively became a death camp” after the conflict began.

It is estimated that more than 30,000 detainees were either executed or died as a result of torture, lack of medical care, or starvation at the facility between 2011 and 2018.

Citing the released prisoners, it also said that at least 500 other detainees were executed between 2018 and 2021.

The ADMSP also described how “salt chambers” were constructed to serve as primitive morgues to store bodies before being transferred to the Tishreen military hospital in Damascus for registration and burial in graves on military grounds. Was. It said the bodies of the detainees were never given to their families.

Amnesty International used the phrase “human slaughterhouse” to describe Sayednaya and alleged that the executions were authorized at the highest levels of the Assad government, and that such practices are war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The Assad government rejected Amnesty’s claims as “baseless” and “devoid of truth”, and insisted that all executions in Syria follow due process.