Toppled Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad fled the country for sanctuary in Russia, which helped prop up his regime amid years of unrest after military groups overthrew his regime
A Syrian prisoner shared his seven harrowing words after being freed from deposed dictator Bashar al-Assad’s underground torture prisons.
Bashar Barhoum, 63, was among the tens of thousands of people imprisoned who were freed from Bashar al-Assad’s prison’s after the dictator was sensationally toppled bringing an end to his family’s decades-long grip on the Middle Eastern country. After spending seven months in the hellish torture prison in Syria’s capital Damascus, Mr Barhoum woke to find men at his cell door on Sunday.
He soon realised the men were attempting to free him and were not members of Assad’s monstrous security forces there to execute him. Clips shared on social media showed numerous prisoners celebrating after being released from prison.
Some were seen wearing little clothing and others were barefoot while one screamed in celebration after he learned the dictator had been toppled. “I haven’t seen the sun until today,” Mr Barhoum told the Associated Press.
The former prisoner said he would set off to find his wife and daughters to let them know he is alive. “Instead of being dead tomorrow, thank God, he gave me a new lease of life,” he added.
Assad’s prisons gained a harrowing reputation for being torture havens in the country. Political prisoners suffered “fear, loss, suffering and cruelty” at prisons such as the infamous Sednaya.
United Nations Human Rights Council commissioner Lynn Welchman said: “Throughout the war, families have put themselves in grave danger and paid exorbitant sums in bribes to corrupt State officials for news about their detained loved ones.
“Now, in videos just released from inside detention facilities, we see rooms with rows of shelves filled with these files. HTS [Hayat Tahrir al-Sham] and the other armed groups now taking control of the detention centres must take great care not to disturb evidence of violations and crimes.”
Other families are still waiting for revelations and news about relatives and loved ones who have been missing for several years. Bassam Masri told the Associated Press: “This happiness will not be completed until I can see my son out of prison and know where he is.
“I have been searching for him for two hours. He has been detained for 13 years.” International human rights groups have claimed that dozens were executed at prisons in Syria every week and The Independent reported that upward of 13,000 Syrians were killed between 2011 and 2016.
The outlet reported the campaign group the Association for Detainees and the Missing in Sednaya Prison, said the jail was now empty. Omar Alshogre who was detained in a Syrian prison for three year watched as videos showed prisoners fleeing the jail.
He said: “A hundred democracies in the world had done nothing to help them, and now a few military groups came down and broke open prison after prison.”