From Saydnaya to Mass Graves: Syria's Brutal Prison System

The fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad revealed how he transformed Syria into a vast prison under the influence of the Iranian axis, where individuals from across the Arab world were detained, whether kidnapped from their home countries or arrested while on Syrian soil.

Assad's prisons were not limited to Syrians who opposed him; they became a graveyard for anyone standing against Iranian militias and their proxies in the region. 

This included people from Iraq, Yemen, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Saudi Arabia, many of whom were executed before their comrades could be liberated with the regime's collapse.

On December 8, 2024, Syrian revolutionary factions managed to free thousands of prisoners from the regime's jails scattered across the cities under its control. 

This came after the ousting of the deposed Bashar al-Assad, who fled to Russia, leaving behind an untold number of bodies in mass graves—victims whose exact count remains unknown.

Iraq

With the collapse of al-Assad’s regime, Iraqi journalists and media outlets published lists of hundreds of Iraqis who had been imprisoned in the infamous Saydnaya prison, some of whom were executed there under mysterious circumstances.

The exact manner in which these individuals ended up in Syria remains unclear, as some were reported missing in Baghdad before their presence in Damascus was revealed.

On December 27, 2024, the sister of one of those executed at Saydnaya, a man named "Abu Abdullah," revealed that her brother was abducted in 2012 near his home, and they had not heard from him since.

Abu Abdullah, a Sunni from the Yusufiyah area south of Baghdad, was a pharmacist by profession.

In a television interview, she explained that after seeing the names of many Iraqi detainees in Syrian regime prisons, she reached out to the Red Crescent. 

They informed her that her brother had been executed at Saydnaya and provided her with around 150 photos of Iraqi prisoners, including him.

Earlier, at the beginning of the liberation of Syrian cities from al-Assad's control, Iraqi journalist Omar al-Jmmal spoke on X on December 5, revealing the discovery of dozens of Iraqi detainees in regime prisons.

Al-Jmmal shared the names of the detainees, which he said were provided by Syrian activists who had infiltrated regime-run jails. 

He described the revelation as a "momentous and shocking event," expressing disbelief at the scale of Iraqi incarceration in Syria, noting that some of the detainees had vanished in Baghdad while working as taxi drivers.

According to information reported by Shafaq News on December 29, when Iraqi Intelligence Chief Hamid al-Shatri met with Syria's new head of administration, Ahmed al-Sharaa, the issue of detainees was a key topic of discussion between the two sides.

The Iraqi agency confirmed that al-Shatri and al-Sharaa had agreed on the "the transfer of data and documents to Iraq concerning all Iraqis held in the previous regime's prisons or in detention centers outside the state's official framework."

It further clarified that "some of these detainee-related documents have already been delivered to the relevant Iraqi authorities," adding that "Iraq may impose a six-month deadline to assess the extent of Al-Sharaa’s adherence to the commitments made to the Iraqi delegation."

On December 13, senior member of the Shiite Coordination Framework, Issam Shaker, acknowledged the presence of large numbers of Iraqis detained in al-Assad's prisons in Syria, describing them as being on the "blacklists."

In remarks that sparked further condemnation, Shaker claimed that dozens of Iraqis were held in various Syrian prisons, some of whom had been released in recent events, while others were still wanted by Baghdad, according to the Iraqi al-Rafidain TV channel.

Jordan

The reopening of Syrian prisons and the release of thousands of detainees has once again brought the plight of hundreds of missing and imprisoned Jordanians in Syria into focus.

The families of 236 Jordanians detained in Syria have called on the relevant authorities to secure their release and determine the fate of those who remain missing.

Over the past decades, Jordanian authorities have documented numerous cases of citizens who vanished in Syria. 

Some have been found and freed, while the fate of many others remains shrouded in mystery.

Many of these arrests and abductions took place in areas previously under Assad's control and were carried out by unknown parties. 

Others were detained by Syrian authorities for reasons that remain unclear, according to Jordanian officials.

On December 8, the Arab Organization for Human Rights revealed the names of 236 Jordanians held in Syrian prisons, most of them in the notorious Saydnaya prison. 

These individuals were previously listed as missing.

On December 10, the Jordanian parliament held a session to discuss the issue of Jordanian detainees in Syria. 

Members of parliament questioned Prime Minister Jafar Hassan about their fate, urging him to follow up on their situation and ensure their prompt return.

In response, the prime minister assured the assembly that "the issue of Jordanians in Syria is receiving the utmost attention" and that "coordination is underway to ensure their safety and secure their return."

In the same session, MP Saleh al-Armouti called for efforts to uncover the fate of Jordanian citizen Wafa al-Obaidat, who has been detained for 35 years in Syrian prisons.

Al-Armouti noted that al-Obaidat is the granddaughter of Kayed Mufleh al-Obaidat, the first Jordanian martyr in Palestine. 

Al-Obaidat had traveled to Syria to search for her missing brother but was arrested by the regime, and her whereabouts have remained unknown ever since.

Another notable case is that of Jordanian detainee Faisal Hamad, who was released after spending 28 years in a Syrian prison. 

He had traveled to Syria to visit his brother, but both were arrested. 

His brother died in custody in late 2020 after enduring years of torture.

Similarly, the story of Jordanian Ibrahim al-Suqur, who was imprisoned for 26 years in al-Assad's jails without knowing the reason for his detention, has drawn attention. 

Al-Suqur confirmed that his captors seemed to take pleasure in the torture they inflicted upon prisoners, as reported by Jordan’s official al-Mamlaka TV on December 29.

Lebanon

In neighboring Lebanon, 9 Lebanese detainees in Syrian prisons returned to the country after the fall of al-Assad’s regime, according to an announcement by Bassam Mawlawi, the Lebanese Minister of the Interior and Municipalities in the caretaker government.

As a result of these developments, Lebanese authorities activated the work of the government committee formed in 2005 to address the issue of detainees in Syria.

According to statements made by Henri Khoury, the Minister of Justice in the caretaker government, the committee intensifies its activities and communicates with the released Lebanese detainees to hear their testimonies and verify their accounts.

Khoury explained in a media interview on December 12 that the committee is focusing on the case of detainees held before 1992. 

Based on their figures, there are 725 Lebanese detainees in Syrian prisons.

"The Lebanese committee received no response from its Syrian counterpart in the course of its work from 2005 to 2011, and it submitted its reports to the Presidents of the Republic and the Government," Khoury added.

When former President Michel Aoun visited former Syrian National Security Director Ali Mamlouk, the response was: "There is no one," according to Khoury.

"The Syrian regime, which once occupied Lebanon, used kidnapping and enforced disappearance as a tool to silence opponents and tighten its grip on the country, often in collaboration with certain Lebanese political factions” Human Rights advocate and former MP Ghassan Moukheiber tells Anadolu Agency.

"Lebanese authorities estimate that around 17,000 people had been forcibly disappeared in Lebanon. Current estimates put their number at around 4,000 people, with around 700 to 1,500 believed to be held inside Syria,” Moukheiber added.

“Moukheiber, a former lawmaker, attributed the lack of precise figures about the missing Lebanese in Syria to the fact that many families refrained from reporting cases due to their distrust in previous parliamentary and human rights committees.”

“The Assad regime was uncooperative on the issue of the missing, and successive Lebanese governments were complicit, Syrian officials consistently denied the presence of Lebanese detainees in their prisons."

“Despite the Assad regime’s denial, Damascus occasionally released Lebanese detainees, either individually or in groups.”

“They used the detainees as political leverage against certain Lebanese parties,"

One such individual is Suhail Hamoui, 61, who returned to Lebanon after spending 33 years in al-Assad's prisons.

Hamoui was reunited with his family in the town of Chekka in northern Lebanon after Syrian revolutionary forces liberated the prisons.

In a television interview on December 9, Hamoui explained that he had been detained in a prison in the coastal city of Latakia (in the west) when he was released. 

However, before that, he had been moved between many detention centers over the past three decades, including Saydnaya.

Hamoui confirmed that he only learned the reason for his imprisonment 20 years after his arrest. 

The Syrian regime accused him of being affiliated with the Lebanese Forces party (FL), without offering any further explanation.

Yemen and Saudi Arabia

Yemen and Saudi Arabia have also been involved in this issue. 

On December 9, the American Yemeni Network posted on its Facebook account about the discovery of Yemeni detainees in the prisons of the former Syrian regime, including Riyad Ahmed Abdullah al-Omaisi, who had lost his memory after being detained for 11 years.

The network reported that the number of Yemeni detainees in al-Assad's prisons is around 12, all of whom were students sent to Syria for their studies. 

Some of them also participated in the 2011 Syrian revolution protests.

The network called on the official Yemeni authorities to take action and coordinate with the relevant parties in Syria to gather any information about the Yemeni detainees, particularly since they were arrested by the "Shabiha" (militias) of Bashar al-Assad's regime.

The Syrian Network for Human Rights documented in March 2023 the detention of at least 2,887 individuals in Syrian regime prisons, all of whom hold Arab nationalities, including 19 children and 28 women.

According to Syria TV, the network reported that among the detainees, 58 individuals with Saudi nationality remain in detention or are subject to enforced disappearance at the hands of the former Syrian regime’s forces, from March 2011 through to the same month in 2023.

In a report published by al-Watan, on August 12, 2011—just five months after the outbreak of the Syrian revolution—it was stated that "around 100 Saudis were detained in prisons run by the Syrian regime’s intelligence services." 

However, the newspaper noted that the difficulty of obtaining information and verifying it hampered efforts to determine whether the number was higher.

Since the fall of al-Assad’s regime, the Syrian Civil Defence has reported the discovery of around 16 mass graves as of December 30, spread across the provinces of Palmyra, Homs, Daraa, Damascus, and Bukamal.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has documented approximately 9 mass graves containing the remains of over 1,475 victims across various Syrian provinces.

The most recent mass grave announced was discovered in the Syrian city of Homs, containing human remains believed to belong to more than 1,200 people. 

These individuals are thought to have been prisoners who were executed and then transported from Homs Military Hospital.

Search efforts are still ongoing in the hope of uncovering further mass graves, which serve as grim evidence of Bashar al-Assad’s bloodthirsty regime. 

These graves may provide crucial clues to the fate of hundreds of thousands of people who remain forcibly disappeared or detained in his prisons, as reported by Monte Carlo on December 30.