The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights

Exclusive video | Civilian from Afrin shares his experience in regime’s prisons with SOHR

“After the Turkish occupation of Afrin, we fled from our areas and headed to Al-Shahbaa area in northern Aleppo. We planed to travel from Al-Shahbaa to Aleppo city, so we headed to Al-Sheikh Najjar area where we were snitched and arrested by the Syrian regime’s men who blindfolded and shackled us and took us in a car, we were 20 persons.”

 

“The place where we were taken to contained children, women and old men, and then they interrogated us. During the interrogation, regime soldiers humiliated and abused us, and told us that the “party”, hinting to Syria Democratic Forces and the Autonomous Administration, had abandoned us and left us to the Turkish and that we came to this area to commit sabotage acts. We were taken later to a large prison in Kuwayres airbase where we were interrogated again, then the prison guards undressed us completely, both men and women, and inspected us. We stayed in this place for nearly 20 days, The place was underground and it was too dark to distinguish day and night.”

 

“I saw some prisoners became unable to move after interrogation due to the cruel beating, some others lost consciousness and were taken to hospitals or died in a week after being tortured during interrogation. It was a place for cruel torture not just a prison.”

 

“I was taken to a small room specified for torture in order to be interrogated. I was placed on an electric chair, then I was lashed on my feet. There was the “tyre” (dulab), where three or four people were forced into a vehicle tyre, with their foreheads pressed onto their knees or ankles, and beaten. If the prisoner remained alive, he was taken to be interrogated, and if he died, then it is the end. I stayed in this prison for 20 days.”

 

“There were two quarters for women. There were too many women in the prison. The youngest prisoner had to distribute food to other prisoners. I was the youngest prisoner, so I was the one distributing the food under the supervision of the prison guard who ordered me to spill food on the ground. When I was distributing food in the quarters of women, I could see 60 to 70 women in each quarters. The place we were held was not a prison, it was a place for killing.”

 

“We were taken later to Aleppo prison, ‘juvenile prison’, which contained at that time nearly 20,000 prisoners. There were two quarters, one for men and one for women. There were nearly 7,000 girls in the women’s quarters, mostly were underage, while boys were aged 13 to 14 years old. They were accused of involvement in terrorist acts. Many of the prisoners were released, as they had been arrested because of similarity of names. If you can pay money to the prison guards, you will be treated well.”

 

“I was arrested on under a fabricated accusation of committing terrorist acts. They said to me ‘mercenaries are better than you, Kurds’. The most used ways of torture were the “tyre” (dulab) and electric shocks. You would confess crimes as you told, even if you were not the perpetrator.”

 

“The intensity of the torture depended on the mood of the prison guards who let their anger out by beating and torturing us.”

 

“The quality of food in the prison was very poor and it was only one dish, a mix of wheat and lentil. Prisoners who did not like the food were left with no food for long time until they felt very hungry, then they found themselves forced to accept to eat anything.”

 

“I was taken later to the military police in Aleppo city where I stayed for 20 days, then I was taken to another underground prison with 20 quarters in it. We were forced to sign documents we do not know what written on.”

 

“During interrogation, we could not see anyone as we had been blindfolded. We also asked to say, in front of cameras, that we were not beaten and that our situation was good.”

 

“They said to us ‘you are terrorists. Afrin was destroyed and handed over to the Turks by you. You will join military service on our ranks’. In the prison, we were always observed by security cameras, and when two people or more started talking or sit together in circles, prison guards came and beat us, shouting ‘what are you planning for?’ If someone died in the prison, the prison’s administration claim that he died of an illness not due to the torture. Amnesty issued by the Syrian regime never covered any of the prisoners I met.”