After 33 Years Lebanese Man Describes Horrors of a Syrian Jail

Suheil Hamawi, a Lebanese national who returned to his homeland after opposition groups toppled the Syrian regime and freed detainees from Sednaya and other notorious prisons in Damascus, shared his harrowing ordeal during 33 years of captivity.

The Bashar al-Assad regime operated numerous torture centers across the country referred to as “death hubs.”

Following the regime’s collapse over the weekend and the opposition’s takeover, anti-regime prisoners held in Sednaya and other detention centers were freed.

Among them was Hamawi, who was released from Sednaya, infamously known as a “human slaughterhouse” for its brutal torture practices.

A victim of the Assad regime, which tortured hundreds of thousands of people, he was abducted by Syrian forces in Lebanon in 1991. He was subsequently arrested and transferred to various prisons in Syria.

Accused of opposing the Syrian occupation of Lebanon from 1976 to 2005, Hamawi endured 33 years of inhumane imprisonment.

‘I had no hope of ever returning to my homeland and family’

Speaking to reporters, Hamawi expressed his gratitude for regaining his freedom and returning to Lebanon after more than three decades of captivity.

He recounted being among the hundreds of Lebanese detained by Syrian intelligence in 1991 for opposing Syria’s military presence in Lebanon.

Hamawi described the unimaginable suffering he endured in Syrian prisons.

“I was sentenced to life imprisonment in Sednaya. Today, I am back in my hometown of Chekka, the same place where Syrian forces detained me 33 years ago,” he said.

Initially transferred to the Anjar detention center in the Bekaa Valley near the Lebanese-Syrian border, he was later moved to detention centers in Damascus and Latakia before being sent to Sednaya.

“I spent 15 years in solitary confinement before being placed in a shared cell at Sednaya. Every single day was torture. From the moment I was detained, every breath I took felt like agony. I had no hope of ever seeing my family again. Visits were completely forbidden, and we had no contact with the outside world,” he said.

Hamawi described his imprisonment as a state of constant despair and deprivation, adding that he had lost all hope of freedom. Even as they heard rumors of events outside, the pace of developments gave prisoners little expectation of imminent release.

“When I heard gunfire, I didn’t know who had come to free me. I walked for 15 kilometers before someone took me to Lebanon,” he said.

According to Lebanon’s National News Agency, Hamawi is the first Lebanese national to return home after being released following the fall of the Assad regime.

Lebanese detainees in Syrian prisons

The Association of Lebanese Political Prisoners in Syrian Prisons estimates that 622 Lebanese citizens remain forcibly disappeared in Syrian detention centers. Many were abducted during Syria’s 29-year occupation of Lebanon.

During this period, the regime detained numerous Lebanese citizens, accusing them of opposing Syria’s military presence or collaborating with anti-regime groups.

Many were transferred to Syrian prisons, with families often losing contact with loved ones for decades.

Some detainees are believed to have been released following recent developments in Syria.

The ‘human slaughterhouse’

Reports from international organizations reveal that Sednaya prison, located 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) north of Damascus, became a detention center for anti-regime activists and military opponents after the 2011 uprising. Under the Assad regime’s Ministry of Defense, the prison became infamous for systematic torture and mass executions.

Between 2011 and 2015, reports indicate that as many as 50 detainees were hanged weekly or bi-weekly, with executions conducted in silence and secrecy. Prisoners endured inhumane conditions, repeated torture and deliberate deprivation of food, water, medicine and medical care.

A 2017 investigation by Amnesty International concluded that the crimes committed at Sednaya, including torture and mass executions, amounted to crimes against humanity. These violations were part of the Assad regime’s broader policy of systematic violence against civilians.

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350 Israeli Warplanes Hit Syrian Targets

The Israeli occupation army announced, Tuesday, it destroyed about 70%-80% of the capabilities of the Syrian army.

Its stated that about 350 Israeli Air Force fighter jets participated in the aggression, attacking around 320 targets throughout Syria.

It added that “…warplanes and helicopters, radars, surface-to-air missile batteries, ships, surface-to-surface missiles, rocket shells, weapons production sites, weapons warehouses, Scud missiles, cruise missiles, sea-to-sea missiles, drones, and others were destroyed.”

In parallel, the aggression continues on land, through operations carried out by the ground forces in the “buffer zone” in the occupied Syrian Golan, so that the Israeli army is working to “establish a presence in the area and destroy weapons.”

On the political level, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said that “Israel will respond forcefully if the new regime in Syria allows Iran to return, or allows weapons to pass to Hezbollah, and will exact a heavy price from it,” but adding it “wants to establish relations with this new regime.”

However, he stressed “what happened to the previous regime in Syria will happen to this regime as well, if it allows weapons to pass to Hezbollah.”

Earlier, the Israeli army radio described the latest aggression on Syria, following the fall of the President Bashar al-Assad regime, as “one of the largest attacks since the establishment of Israel.”

Israeli Defense Minister Yisrael Katz confirmed the occupation’s decision to continue controlling strategic points in Syria, establish a security buffer zone, and target strategic weapons and air defense systems, and any attempts to transfer weapons to Lebanon.

The Israeli Channel 12 confirmed that the air force is operating on a very large scale throughout Syria with the aim of destroying what remains of the Syrian army and all its equipment, “from tanks to missiles,” according to the Kan official channel.

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Syria: 10 Days That Shook The World

Dr Khairi Janbek

Without much ado, the western media is currently preoccupied with this question: Are the Syrian rebels Jihadis? This is while the Arab media appears to be in a state of euphoria about the Syrian rebels seen as liberators. The issue however is about two perspectives, the first being cautious about the next phase for the country, and this is for understandable reasons, while the second reflects optimism for the next stage and also for understandable reasons.

Now, the fear of dividing Syria on ethnic and sectarian grounds has its blueprint in the colonial history of Syria and certainly not a product of today and/or creative chaos utterances.

Looking back

In fact, on 1 July, 1922, the French colonial authorities divided Syria into federal statelets: statelet of Damascus, statelet of Aleppo, statelet of the Alawites, and the statelet of the Druze. Of course, the idea was that the country would be easier to rule and a regional and a sectarian balance would guarantee political stability. Of course, the Kurds were outside this formula as they were struggling to create an independent state of their own.

But what about Syria now, to paraphrase John Reed, after the 10 days that shook the world. Indeed, the two regional police stations in the region, Turkey and Israel seems to be gaining major influence in the current affairs, while the third police station, Iran, has lost out in this formula.

Rivalry

For all intents and purposes, no one is naive enough to think that the march towards Damascus could have occurred without Turkish support, and the Israeli foreign minister has confirmed that talks were held between his government and the Druze as well as the Kurds of Syria, whom he described as having good relations with them.

But what about the Russians? One would venture to say that they are like to stay in Syria as most probably, paying guests of the new Syrian government, renting their military installations from them.

Undoubtedly, no matter how much we can be optimistic about the future of all-inclusive democratic Syria, we will always reluctantly fall back on our cognitive dissonance regarding the case of Iraq, and make the mistake of comparison with the post-Saddam era of terrorism, sectarianism an ethnic strife.

This is simply because, we forget that in Iraq there was superpower which brought down the regime and destroyed all the functioning institutions of the country favoring when religious Islamic sect over another, and supporting one ethnicity against others. While in Syria, its the Syrians themselves brought down the Ba’ath regime.

On the face of it, the rebels don’t seem to want to be the new masters of Syria and they are working very hard to protect and preserve the functioning institutions of the country, and claim their adherence to pluralism and for an all inclusive new regime.

But two important questions remain outstanding, and only time will tell how these will unfold: To what extent will there be Turkish and Israeli influence on the emerging regime, and more importantly, what would be the share of those two police stations of the country?

In other words, how will Turkey perceive the future of the Kurds in Syria, and where does Israel see its border posts with the “new” Syria?

In all likelihood, the rebels will keep their word of wanting a stable pluralist Syria, but let us not forget also, that a future spark of ethnic, regional or sectarian conflict, will very likely turn all into extremists in the country.

Dr Khairi Janbek is Jordanian commentator based in Paris.

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Israel Strikes 100 Military Sites on 1st Day of Syria Takeover

This is not trending on the social media nor any media but has been made by an Arab journalist.

Ahmad Mansour, a journalist in Al Jazeera, writes:

Israel struck, Sunday, more than 100 military targets in Syria, in addition to civilian institutions.

Israel does not want to leave any military or civilian components for the new state led by the rebels.

Assad #سوريا left the ruins of a state, but Israel wants to turn it into ashes #دمشق_تتحرر #سوريا_تتحرر

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What Next For Moscow After Fall of Damascus

Events are rapidly unfolding before after the fall of the Syrian capital, Damascus, into the hands of the armed opposition forces that entered it without resistance because the Syrian army, under orders from its supreme commander, decided not to resort to bloody confrontations to prevent bloodshed and accept defeat in the face of a tripartite aggression well-planned in the dark rooms of Washington, Ankara and Tel Aviv.

The Russian authorities’ announcement, Sunday, of the arrival of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his family to Moscow and granting them political asylum, confirms that the sudden developments currently taking place may be the tip of the iceberg.

There may be many surprises to come on all levels, as Syria is a jungle of weapons, and it is unlikely that the sudden surrender is just a maneuver, just like what happened in Iraq after the collapse of the Iraqi army in the face of the American invasion, and the goal now is to reposition, bow to the storm, and prepare to resist the occupation.

https://twitter.com/abdelbariatwan/status/1865843698195378221

The fall of Damascus is a fatal stab to Russia and its leadership, which the new authority in Syria has no affection for, and sees it as a strategic partner of the isolated Syrian regime. Its warplanes have not stopped bombing Idlib, Aleppo, Hama and Homs, and this Russian airstrike played a major role in the Syrian Arab Army regaining most of the cities and villages that were seized by the opposition forces supported by America, Europe and Turkey.

We do not know what President Bashar al-Assad’s plans are in the coming period. Will he resort to calm and withdraw from political work, in compliance with the conditions of political asylum, or will he make Moscow a base to manage a resistance that he will form and lead from his new exile.

News circulated in the past few days that countries supporting the deposed Syrian president, led by Russia, suggested he form a government in exile to confirm his non-recognition of the new government that may be formed in the coming few days to run the country, avoid a political vacuum, and prepare for holding general elections.

We do not know the extent of the accuracy of this news, and perhaps it is too early to try to extrapolate what events are coming in Syria, as only one day has passed since the fall of Damascus and President Assad’s flight to Moscow and his granting of political asylum.

However, what can be pointed out is that the picture seems blurry in Syria at the present time, as Damascus and the major Syrian cities have been exposed to a war led by armed Syrian opposition factions on behalf of America, Turkey and other Arab countries, unlike the direct American war in Iraq in 2003, in which more than 160,000 American soldiers participated, and Paul Bremer was installed as military governor of Iraq in a transitional phase.

Unfortunately, we can’t disagree with Benjamin Netanyahu when he said: “The fall of Damascus and the collapse of the ruling regime there is considered a historic day and a great victory for Israel.”

Damascus is the crown jewel of the axis of resistance, the main supporter of the Palestinian cause, and the stubborn opponent of normalization. The question remains: Will Netanyahu’s celebrations of this fall last long? We leave the answer to the coming days and months.

Abdel Bari Atwan is the Chief Editor of Al Rai Al Youm

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