Basic background resources for those who not familiar with Saydnaya (also Sednaya/Seydnaya/Sadnaya) & other notorious Syrian prisons such as Tadmor (destroyed 2015), Mazzeh (Air Force Intelligence/Mazzeh Mil Airport), & Qism Falastin (Palestine Branch/Branch 235). The sheer magnitude of this. 1/6 - ThreadSky

separkinson.bsky.social • 91 days ago

Basic background resources for those who not familiar with Saydnaya (also Sednaya/Seydnaya/Sadnaya) & other notorious Syrian prisons such as Tadmor (destroyed 2015), Mazzeh (Air Force Intelligence/Mazzeh Mil Airport), & Qism Falastin (Palestine Branch/Branch 235).

The sheer magnitude of this. 1/6

Reposted from Elia Ayoub إيليا أيوب

The absolute horrors of the Assad regime exemplified by Saydnaya prison. Many prisoners are not freed yet bcs the rebels cannot get to them as they are 3 floors underground. #Syria

Comments

goofrider.bsky.social•90 days ago

📌

goofrider.bsky.social•91 days ago

📌

mirakosh.bsky.social•91 days ago

Now do the CIA's black prison system. Then do the Pentagons black prison system.

squizzradical.bsky.social•90 days ago

Branch 215 was emptied, AFAIK.

separkinson.bsky.social•91 days ago

"If the Dead Could Speak," @hrw.org's report on "Ceasar" photographs, 50K+ images of of dead prisoners/murdered opposition as well as state forces & crime scene records (28K+ being of ppl the state killed in custody). Images smuggled out of Syria by a fmr Military Police forensic photographer 2/6

separkinson.bsky.social•90 days ago

*Caesar, arg.

separkinson.bsky.social•91 days ago

@amnesty.org's & @forensicarchi.bsky.social's painstakingly assembled interactive feature on the prison, based on the testimony of people who survived it.

Associated report: "Human Slaughterhouse" https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde24/5415/2017/en/

3/6

separkinson.bsky.social•91 days ago

"The Shell: Memoirs of a Hidden Observer" by Mustafa Khalifa. A novel/fictionalized memoir of incarceration in Tadmor (which was outside of Palmyra) based on the author's 12 years as a political prisoner. Khalifa has been referred to as Syria's Sozhenitsyn.

It is devastating. 4/6

biffpm.bsky.social•91 days ago

The Shell was the first novel I’d ever read in Arabic, gifted by coworkers a long time ago (when I was also a more diligent Arabic student). Had no idea it was subsequently translated. Truly incredible and relevant today

separkinson.bsky.social•91 days ago

I had this New Yorker piece by Ben Taub up, so I'm posting it as well, but to be clear: there is other excellent reporting on all of this, much of it from journalists/analysts from the region (will try to post more later). People were doing incredibly brave work on this a decade ago and more 5/6

separkinson.bsky.social•91 days ago

Some ppl being freed from these prisons/gulags/dungeons were incarcerated before the Syrian Civil War. There were prisoners from the Lebanese Civil War/Syrian occupation of Lebanon in Tadmor in 2015. The Assad regime imprisoned unimaginable numbers of Syrians, but also Lebanese & Palestinians 6/6

separkinson.bsky.social•90 days ago

Adding: "The Syrian Government Detention System as a Tool of Violent Repression." UN report that draws on "over 300 witness interviews, medical forensic evidence and the Syrian Government’s own documentation." Covers March 2011 onward, aimed at supporting justice efforts.

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