In the aftermath of the Assad regime's collapse in Syria, attention has shifted to efforts aimed at freeing prisoners and detainees from Damascus' Sednaya Prison, widely regarded as one of the most infamous jails in modern history. Syrian rebels led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham announced on Sunday that they had freed thousands of detainees from Sednaya, the dungeon-like facility where an estimated 30,000 people have been killed since 2011.
Families flocked to the prison hoping to find their missing relatives, not knowing whether they were alive or dead.
Established in 1987, Sednaya was under the jurisdiction of the Syrian Defense Ministry and operated by the military police. The facility is roughly 30 kilometers (18 miles) north of Damascus and its two buildings held somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000 detainees.
Amnesty International titled its 2017 report, "Human Slaughterhouse: Mass Hangings and Extermination at Sednaya Prison, Syria" after a local nickname for Sednaya. It read that the prison was known for its horrific conditions and inhumane treatment of detainees, most of whom were held without due process. According to Amnesty, prisoners were regularly subjected to severe beatings for which guards used electric cables, water pipes and metal bars, sometimes leading to death. Prisoners also suffered long periods of solitary confinement, sexual violence, deprivation of food and water and denial of medical care.
Extrajudicial executions, including near-weekly mass hangings of groups between 20 and 50 people, were common practice at Sednaya. In 2017, the US State Department claimed that the Syrian government built a crematorium on the grounds to dispose of the remains of thousands of murdered detainees.
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