Syrians are racing against time and monitoring rewards in an attempt to decode the electronic doors of the cells Saydnaya prison The notorious military headquarters in the Damascus countryside, whose gates the rebels were able to open after the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime at dawn on Sunday, is still a black hole whose secrets they do not know.
Opposition factions confirmed at dawn on Sunday that the gates of Saydnaya Military Prison had been opened after its prisoners escaped. It is one of the largest prisons in Syria, and non-governmental organizations have reported for decades that prisoners there have been subjected to torture.
The revolutionaries succeeded in releasing thousands of prisoners in Saydnaya, but some activists reported higher numbers of the prison population, some of which reached 120,000.
Although more than 24 hours have passed since the prison was liberated, the revolutionaries are still trying to decipher the locks and know the map of the secret gates leading to the basements containing thousands of detainees, who are expected to still be on floors whose precise number is unknown underground.
Video clips of attempts to break down walls to reach prisoners have spread, but these attempts have so far failed.
O God’s pardon!!
The first underground floor called red was opened.
There was a lack of ventilation and they almost died of suffocation, and their number was estimated at 40,000 detaineesThe second floor, which they have not reached yet, contains 80,000 prisoners
The third contains 30,000 prisoners who are considered among the most dangerous prisoners in the eyes of the regime#Saydnaya_Prison‘.. pic.twitter.com/qVM4EEsSNf– Qasim 🚩 (@c0mmandos) December 8, 2024
Big prizes
A number of activists launched calls to seek assistance from countries or organizations with expertise to help reach detainees in their underground cells, before it is too late.
A number of other Syrian businessmen and revolutionaries also rushed to offer rewards, one of which amounted to $100,000 for anyone who possesses the door code or helps open all of the prison cells.
To reassure the jailers who possessed this information and fled with the fall of Assad, the donors pledged to provide security and protection for those who point out the prison’s secret gates or who give the “codes” for opening them.
Complex doors
According to a report by Al Jazeera correspondent Adham Abu Al-Hossam, the opposition forces succeeded in controlling the prison and releasing thousands of detainees from the upper floors, but the three lower floors, known as the Red Prison, the White Prison, and the Yellow Prison, are still underground and isolated from the outside. A time when those detained there face tragic conditions.
Despite diligent efforts, neither the residents nor the opposition forces were able to reach these floors, and residents indicate that there are complex secret doors leading to these areas, which are tightly closed.
With the power outage, the lives of detainees have become more difficult, as they suffer from severe shortages of water, food, and air, amid increasing calls for international organizations and experts to intervene.
Piston for executions
With the scenes of the release of some prisoners from inside the prison and the miserable condition in which they were released, as well as the video clips that leaked from the execution ropes and the iron execution press that the regime was using to crush those who executed them, the insistence of the revolutionaries and the families of missing detainees on searching for the secret gates that might lead to them increased. To the thousands of missing people in the regime’s prisons, with no trace of them known for years.
The iron execution press in Saydnaya prison.
After he is executed by hanging, they put him in a press and press him until he becomes like a paper
His body and bones are crushed,
There are blood ducts under the piston.
His remains are then placed in a bag and disposed of outside the prison.The Inquisition in Andalusia did not do this.
May God’s curse be upon the Assad family and those who supported them… pic.twitter.com/lR2JsOq3Ac
– Ahmed Mohammed Al-Kandari (@eng_alkandari) December 8, 2024
Syrian Civil Defense
While the search continues for secret gates to the prison and whoever has the codes to open them or a map indicating them, the Syrian Civil Defense confirmed (White helmetsHis teams that arrived at Saydnaya Prison had not found, as of this afternoon, any secret doors in question, despite their use of search tools, audio sensors, and trained dogs.
Until the moment this tweet was published, our teams that arrived at the prison did not find any #Saydnaya At any secret doors that are being talked about, the teams work with breaching and search tools, audio sensors, and in the presence of K9 teams that include trained dogs. We are accompanied in the search by people who know all the details of the prison, in addition to our reliance on instructions from people who have been contacted… pic.twitter.com/skW3s1hOrB
– Syrian Civil Defense (@SyriaCivilDefe) December 9, 2024
The coming hours remain crucial to determining the fate of the lives of thousands of missing people, whose families are counting on finding them alive or dead in the “Sednaya slaughterhouse,” as most Syrians call it.