'Where are the rest?' Families seek answers after Sednaya prison's fall

Many Syrians are finding it hard to sleep this week following the liberation of Sednaya Prison, a chilling symbol of the unrelenting terror millions of people experienced under the now-toppled regime of Bashar al Assad.

As rebels celebrated in Damascus in what was described as the capital's "first breaths of freedom" following a 14-year-long civil war, videos from Sednaya emerged, exposing the harrowing conditions at what many had long referred to as the former president's "human slaughterhouse."

Initial reports described how emaciated prisoners emerged, some resembling skeletal figures from years of starvation, others robbed of their memories.

As word spread, families of detainees flooded the prison, driven by hope and desperation to find their missing loved ones. The influx of anguished relatives "led to chaos," complicating efforts to document the number of freed detainees, according to Diab Serrieh, director of the Association of Sednaya Prison Detainees and a former inmate himself.

Raed Saleh, head of the Syrian Civil Defense, known as the White Helmets, issued a plea to the families of the disappeared, urging them not to converge on Sednaya, warning that their presence hindered ongoing search operations.

Over the next two days, specialised teams, including search-and-rescue units, wall-penetration experts and trained dogs were deployed to investigate the possibility of hidden compartments within the prison.

Five emergency response teams were tasked with uncovering any remaining secrets behind Sednaya's iron gates, accompanied by guides intimately familiar with the prison's layout. Despite their efforts, the search proved fruitless.

Scenes of chaos and hope

Speaking to TRT World, Serrieh recounted several pivotal moments from December 8, the day the prison was captured and its prisoners liberated.

"A small group of fighters, members of the Qalamoun Brigade, took it upon themselves to free the prison before Assad's relief forces could reach Damascus," he said.

He detailed how the group first approached a checkpoint approximately 700 meters from the prison. The guards, three frightened soldiers, abandoned their post without resistance, allowing the fighters to advance.

What followed was a tense standoff with the prison's main garrison, and after a brief skirmish, the fighters negotiated an agreement, permitting the guards to flee in exchange for peaceful entry.

According to Serrieh's account, it took "only 20 fighters" to storm the prison. They were equipped with moderate weaponry, including a pickup truck, medium-range machine guns and five motorcycles. Rebel fighters then released hundreds of prisoners.

Two days later, Syrian Civil Defense officials announced the end of its search for detainees in Sednaya Prison, confirming that no unopened cells or secret underground chambers were found, despite earlier reports suggesting their existence.

While hundreds of detainees were freed, many more remain unaccounted for, leaving families without answers about the fate of their missing loved ones.

The news crushed Hamza al-Bakar's hopes of finding his father, who was detained in Sednaya Prison for several years. Speaking to TRT World, the young man said he remains unconvinced by the results of the investigation.

"Initially, officials claimed surveillance cameras showed prisoners still locked in cells, but on Monday, the narrative shifted. How is it that a prison with thousands of detainees releases only 4,000? Where are the rest?"

Serrieh estimated that approximately 2,000 prisoners, mainly political detainees, were released. But exact records were lost in the chaos. A recently obtained document revealed that 1,460 prisoners were held in Sednaya's infamous "red building" as of late November.

"The emotional chaos gave rise to a flurry of rumours and misconceptions. For instance, the prison does not house women or children, nor does it have underground dungeons or secret chambers. Sednaya consists of three floors, a grim yet straightforward design." Footage aired in the media showing women and children being released was actually from a different prison, not Sednaya.

Families in anguish

After the prison was freed, social media was flooded with lists of freed detainees, while families shared photographs of missing loved ones, desperate for any lead.

New digital databases emerged, allowing users to search for detainees by name. But inaccuracies in the lists, combined with rumours and unverified claims, only fuelled false hope.

Hamza's father, Osama al-Bakar, served as a chief clerk in the Syrian regime's vehicle department in Harasta. One day, he left for work and never returned. The family soon faced raids on their home and relentless questions about his whereabouts. Eventually, they learned that the father was held in the Sednaya red building.

"We managed to visit him once before all contact was lost," al-Bakar said. "Despite hiring multiple lawyers, no further information was provided, and the family was defrauded of their money."

Losing hope, the family relocated to Lebanon to rebuild their lives. But the pain resurfaced this week when their final shred of hope, the possibility of finding the family's patriarch, was extinguished.

Al Bakar's story is mirrored in the anguish of Maha Sweid, whose search for her husband, missing since 2014, has been equally futile.

Unable to reach Sednaya due to severe transportation challenges and overwhelming crowds, she scoured various locations, starting with the Abbassiyeen bus station, where rumours said prisoners had been transferred, and later moved to al-Salam Mosque in Barzeh and to al-Tal. In every location, her search yielded nothing.

Speaking to TRT World, she said, "The scenes were haunting. People were overjoyed to see their loved ones, but devastated by the conditions they found them in."

She added that many detainees were unrecognisable; some had lost their sight, others their memories. For Sweid, it appears her husband is gone. She has found no trace of him, nor has his name appeared on any list of released detainees.

Activist Mahmoud al-Hamwi described the current situation as one of "growing pains" amid a chaotic political transition. While efforts to piece together reliable data about the missing and the recovered continue, the scale of the task is daunting.

"We're still in the early stages of uncovering the truth," al-Hamwi said, urging patience as search teams and humanitarian groups work to sift through the remnants of one of Syria's darkest chapters.

Red building horrors

Sednaya consists of two distinct buildings, al-Hamwi explained to TRT World.

"The first, known as the 'white building,' is designated for criminal offenders and is shaped like the letter L. It offers better living conditions, including access to food, healthcare, and limited visitation rights."

The second, the infamous "red building," shaped like the letter Y, got its name from its once-red exterior.

"During the revolution, the regime repainted it white, perhaps to obscure its grim legacy," al-Hamzi added.

This building housed political prisoners, dissenters, and those detained for their role in the uprising, commonly referred to as "security detainees," according to Serrieh.

"These prisoners endured unimaginable brutality, including routine beatings, psychological abuse, starvation, and executions following sham trials," he said.

The disparity between the two buildings extended beyond architecture. A former inmate, who wished to remain anonymous for security reasons, recounted his relative privileges in the white building.

"We could occasionally glimpse some semblance of normality, but for those imprisoned there (in the red building), life was an unending nightmare," he told TRT World.

Unlike the red building's detainees, criminal prisoners had visitation rights and were subjected to violence only for breaking prison rules.

Known among detainees as the place where "the lost are never found," the red building epitomised suffering. One political prisoner, freed after four years there, described his initial disbelief at the sounds of takbeer (cries of "God is great") echoing through the prison during its liberation.

"At first, I feared it was another trick by the guards to torment us. It took time for us to trust that freedom was real," he told TRT world.

Life in Sednaya was "hellish," he added, likening it to the proverbial abyss, where inmates were frequently subjected to various forms of torture, including brutal beatings, sexual violence, and deprivation of food and medical care.

The liberation of Sednaya marks a turning point for Syria – a harrowing reminder of its darkest days under authoritarian rule and a glimmer of hope for those longing to reunite with the missing. For many, the scars of Sednaya will endure, but the shadow it cast over the nation has finally lifted.

This article is published in collaboration with Egab.