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Sednaya Prison
Sednaya Prison (Arabic: سجن صيدنايا, romanized: Sijn Ṣaydnāyā), nicknamed the "Human Slaughterhouse" (المسلخ البشري), was a military prison and death camp in the suburbs of Damascus, Syria, and operated by Ba'athist Syria. Prisoners included civilian detainees (people held in prison for non-criminal charges such as immigration violations, civil contempt or sexual violence), anti-government rebels, and political prisoners. In January 2021, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) estimated that 30,000 detainees were killed by the Assad regime in Sednaya from torture, ill-treatment, and mass executions since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war, while Amnesty International estimated in February 2017 that between 5,000 and 13,000 people were extrajudicially executed at Sednaya between September 2011 and December 2015.
On 8 December 2024, the prison was captured by rebel forces as they advanced into Damascus. The prison administration agreed to surrender the prison to the rebel forces in exchange for their safe withdrawal. Following the takeover, the remaining inmates in the "white" building were released. Rebel forces took several extra days to break into the prison and free inmates from the larger "red" building.
After the prison's capture, the Syrian caretaker government headed by the ex-Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham published a list of escaped prison staff, who are now among the most wanted fugitives in Syria, second only to members of the Assad family.
The Sednaya Prison is located 30 kilometers (19 mi) north of the Syrian capital, Damascus, in Rif Dimashq. The prison consists of two buildings, which housed a total of 10,000–20,000 detainees and was operated by the Syrian Military Police under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Defense. Locals believed that prison had a hidden underground system that extended three levels below, housing many of the most severely abused prisoners.[failed verification]
Human rights organizations have identified over 27 prisons and detention centers run by the Assad regime where detainees were routinely tortured and killed. A Syrian defector, known by the pseudonym Caesar, smuggled thousands of photographs from prisons in Damascus and its periphery, providing evidence of detainees who had been tortured and killed. Caesar had taken the photographs himself.
Caesar, however, was not at Sednaya, which was north of the prisons that he had been in. Until a rebel photographed the prison from several kilometers away on 7 December 2024, no images of Sednaya Prison had existed aside from satellite photos. Based on the satellite images and testimonies, Sednaya Prison had been described by locals as comprising two buildings. The "white" building was a smaller L-shaped prison believed to have held disloyal officers before being repurposed in 2011 for protesters. The "red" building was a larger, spoke-shaped structure initially used to hold members of the Fighting Vanguard but later housed political prisoners.
There were at least two so-called "salt rooms" at Sednaya, with the first opening as early as 2013. One, located on the first floor of the "Red Building," was a rectangular room 6 by 8 meters (20 by 26 feet). Another was 4 by 5 meters (13 by 16.5 feet) with no toilet. The rooms were covered in a layer of salt (the type usually used for de-icing roads) and were used as mortuaries to preserve dead bodies in the absence of refrigerated morgues. When a detainee at Sednaya died, their body would be left inside a cell with other inmates for two to five days before being taken to the salt room. The rock salt used at Sednaya came from Sabkhat al-Jabbul in Aleppo Governorate.
On 15 May 2017, the United States Department of State accused the Syrian government of operating a crematorium at the prison to dispose of bodies and destroy evidence of war crimes. This assessment was based on declassified satellite photographs. The photographs, taken over several years starting in 2013, showed building modifications that the State Department interpreted as consistent with a crematorium. More than six Syrians told the New York Times they either witnessed bodies being burned or detected suspicious odors.
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Sednaya Prison
Sednaya Prison (Arabic: سجن صيدنايا, romanized: Sijn Ṣaydnāyā), nicknamed the "Human Slaughterhouse" (المسلخ البشري), was a military prison and death camp in the suburbs of Damascus, Syria, and operated by Ba'athist Syria. Prisoners included civilian detainees (people held in prison for non-criminal charges such as immigration violations, civil contempt or sexual violence), anti-government rebels, and political prisoners. In January 2021, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) estimated that 30,000 detainees were killed by the Assad regime in Sednaya from torture, ill-treatment, and mass executions since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war, while Amnesty International estimated in February 2017 that between 5,000 and 13,000 people were extrajudicially executed at Sednaya between September 2011 and December 2015.
On 8 December 2024, the prison was captured by rebel forces as they advanced into Damascus. The prison administration agreed to surrender the prison to the rebel forces in exchange for their safe withdrawal. Following the takeover, the remaining inmates in the "white" building were released. Rebel forces took several extra days to break into the prison and free inmates from the larger "red" building.
After the prison's capture, the Syrian caretaker government headed by the ex-Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham published a list of escaped prison staff, who are now among the most wanted fugitives in Syria, second only to members of the Assad family.
The Sednaya Prison is located 30 kilometers (19 mi) north of the Syrian capital, Damascus, in Rif Dimashq. The prison consists of two buildings, which housed a total of 10,000–20,000 detainees and was operated by the Syrian Military Police under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Defense. Locals believed that prison had a hidden underground system that extended three levels below, housing many of the most severely abused prisoners.[failed verification]
Human rights organizations have identified over 27 prisons and detention centers run by the Assad regime where detainees were routinely tortured and killed. A Syrian defector, known by the pseudonym Caesar, smuggled thousands of photographs from prisons in Damascus and its periphery, providing evidence of detainees who had been tortured and killed. Caesar had taken the photographs himself.
Caesar, however, was not at Sednaya, which was north of the prisons that he had been in. Until a rebel photographed the prison from several kilometers away on 7 December 2024, no images of Sednaya Prison had existed aside from satellite photos. Based on the satellite images and testimonies, Sednaya Prison had been described by locals as comprising two buildings. The "white" building was a smaller L-shaped prison believed to have held disloyal officers before being repurposed in 2011 for protesters. The "red" building was a larger, spoke-shaped structure initially used to hold members of the Fighting Vanguard but later housed political prisoners.
There were at least two so-called "salt rooms" at Sednaya, with the first opening as early as 2013. One, located on the first floor of the "Red Building," was a rectangular room 6 by 8 meters (20 by 26 feet). Another was 4 by 5 meters (13 by 16.5 feet) with no toilet. The rooms were covered in a layer of salt (the type usually used for de-icing roads) and were used as mortuaries to preserve dead bodies in the absence of refrigerated morgues. When a detainee at Sednaya died, their body would be left inside a cell with other inmates for two to five days before being taken to the salt room. The rock salt used at Sednaya came from Sabkhat al-Jabbul in Aleppo Governorate.
On 15 May 2017, the United States Department of State accused the Syrian government of operating a crematorium at the prison to dispose of bodies and destroy evidence of war crimes. This assessment was based on declassified satellite photographs. The photographs, taken over several years starting in 2013, showed building modifications that the State Department interpreted as consistent with a crematorium. More than six Syrians told the New York Times they either witnessed bodies being burned or detected suspicious odors.