Prisoners Celebrate Freedom Amidst Assad’s Fall

On a Sunday morning in Damascus, Bashar Barhoum awoke in his underground prison cell, believing it was to be the last day of his life. At 63, this writer had been facing execution after enduring seven long months behind bars.

However, to his surprise, the men who came to his cell were not the dreaded enforcers of the former Syrian president, Bashar Assad. Instead, they were insurgents ready to liberate him.

The recent advance of rebel forces across Syria had resulted in the collapse of Assad’s decades-long rule, leading them to storm prisons and release political detainees, along with many who had vanished since the conflict erupted in 2011.

Barhoum was among the freed individuals celebrating their newfound liberty in the streets of Damascus.

“I hadn’t seen the sun until today,” Barhoum exclaimed in awe after cautiously navigating the city. “Instead of facing death tomorrow, I thank God for granting me another chance at life.”

Unable to locate his phone or belongings in the prison, Barhoum set off to find a way to inform his wife and daughters of his well-being.

Videos circulated widely on social media showed numerous inmates fleeing in joy from their prisons, some barefoot and others in minimal clothing. One prisoner was seen shouting exultantly upon learning that the government had collapsed.

Syria’s prisons have garnered a notorious reputation for their brutal conditions, where systematic torture is commonplace according to various human rights advocates, former inmates, and whistleblowers. Hidden executions have been documented at over twenty facilities operated by Syrian intelligence, as well as in additional locations.

In a notable incident back in 2013, a defected military photographer known as “Caesar” smuggled out more than 53,000 images that demonstrated extensive torture, alongside evidence of disease and starvation within the prison system.

Lina Khatib, an Associate Fellow at Chatham House, stated that Assad’s feared security forces aimed to both isolate dissenters and cement a culture of fear among Syrians, creating deep-rooted mistrust and submission to authority.

Just north of Damascus lay Saydnaya military prison, infamously dubbed the “human slaughterhouse.” As insurgents broke through the prison gates on that early Sunday, terrified women prisoners, some with their children, cried out for help. Reports from Amnesty International indicate that within this facility, numerous individuals were executed in secret on a weekly basis, with estimates suggesting that nearly 13,000 Syrians lost their lives there from 2011 to 2016.
“Don’t be afraid … The rule of Bashar Assad has ended! Why fear?” shouted a rebel, urging freed women to escape their cramped cells.

In total, tens of thousands of prisoners have been liberated, according to Rami Abdurrahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a pro-opposition organization based in Britain. In the past week alone, detainees were liberated from cities such as Aleppo, Homs, Hama, and Damascus.

While the streets echoed with celebrations, families continued to anxiously await news of their loved ones who had been missing for years. Omar Alshogre, a human rights advocate who endured three years of torture himself, looked on from afar as footage of the fleeing prisoners surfaced.

“A hundred democracies worldwide offered no assistance; it took a few military groups to shatter prison walls,” lamented Alshogre, now residing in Sweden and the U.S.

For families of the detained, the euphoria of regime collapse felt incomplete. They gathered outside prisons and security facilities, hopeful yet anxious about the fate of their missing family members. “This joy cannot be fulfilled until I see my son released and know he is safe,” expressed Bassam Masri, who has been searching for his son detained for thirteen years since the uprising began.

Another individual, identified only as Heba, was in search of her brother and brother-in-law, both of whom had disappeared while reporting a stolen car back in 2011. “They took so many of us,” she mourned. “The Assad regime has caused us immense grief.”