Six Years in Assad's Prisons: Interview
If you are Syrian or spent years following the war, the chances are that you know of someone who was imprisoned by the former regime. In cases of people accused of ‘terrorism’, the person’s ultimate fate very much feels like matter of sheer luck. With the fall of the Assad regime, some have made it out alive, while many others have likely perished under torture and been dumped in mass graves. Given the frequent capriciousness of the prison and judicial system under Assad, it is often not clear why some were executed while others have survived.
Back in 2018, a person I knew from the al-Rafid area in al-Qunaytra province on the border with the Golan Heights was arrested by the regime’s security apparatus. After initially being detained for a short period and then released, he was rearrested. Over the years, I would occasionally ask others about his whereabouts, only to hear that he was still in prison (assuming he was still alive). Following the fall of the Assad regime, I initially heard nothing about his fate, and had largely given up on the hope that he might still be alive, until, much to my surprise, he reconnected with me today! The following interview documents his experiences in prison as well as how he views the current situation in Syria and the issue of Israel’s incursion into al-Qunaytra.
Damascus Central Prison affiliated with the Interior Ministry.
Q: When did they arrest you on the first occasion? As I remember they arrested you for a period and released you? Can you clarify what happened on the first occasion?
A: On 16 August 2018 they arrested me for the first time in coordination with one of the notables of the locality. They put in place a precise ambush in the locality of al-Hayran which is around 3km from my house in the locality of al-Rafid. They took me to the interrogation branch at al-Mezzeh military airport. I stayed there for around one month and sixteen days. They did a deal with me and released me. When I reneged on the agreement they arrested me again on 29 October 2018.