The torture, depravity and unthinkable sexual violence inside Bashar al-Assad’s prisons has been revealed by eight women who were detained there.
Eight courageous women, all of whom have at least two children, spoke of their suffering to Syrian NGO Lawyers and Doctors for Human Rights (LDHR), who want to bring the Syrian leader to justice.
One woman she was stabbed in the leg with a letter opener and had cigarettes stubbed out on her breasts, another that she was raped by a man who then spit on her and called her a ‘terrorist’.
Every one of them – going by the pseudonyms Rima, Amina, Hayah, Munira, Ayda, Janan, Manar and Zahira – were arrested arbitrarily and many were branded extremists or terrorist sympathisers without evidence.
The torture, depravity and unthinkable sexual violence inside Bashar al-Assad’s prisons has been revealed by eight women who were detained there (file photo of entrance to the Adra Prison)
More than 65,000 people are thought to have died in the Syrian regime’s prisons over the last six years. Pictured: Abier Farhud (not named in the recent report), who has been victim of torture and abuse in Syrian regime cells
LDHR hopes that by sharing their stories, it can put pressure on the Syrian regime to allow inspectors into the country and its jails.
It also aims to hold Syrian officials responsible for the mistreatment of prisoners – 65,000 of whom have died in regime jails in the last six years – so they can be punished at future war crimes trials.
The Guernica 37 International Justice Chambers, a legal advocacy group that advises LDHR, has gone as far as to say it would ‘allow courts to investigate… illegal detention centres’ operated by the Assad government, the Independent reported.
If they are successful, the officials named in the LDHR report titled ‘Voices From The Dark’ could be arrested if they travel abroad.
The eight women interviewed in the report, none of whom know each other, were all medically evaluated by a specially trained LDHR.
Seven of them were subjected to ‘extreme physical’ pain repeatedly, often for long periods of time, with weapons including wire and hoses.
Ayda had her leg stabbed with full force using a letter opener, had burning cigarettes put out on her breasts and was knocked unconsciousness by a sharp blow to her head.
Munira was suspended upside down, Zahira was beaten with a water hose and Janan’s feet and legs were beaten savagely with a broken-ended wooden stick.
Eight courageous women, all of whom have at least two children, spoke of their suffering to Syrian NGO Lawyers and Doctors for Human Rights (LDHR) who want to bring Assad (pictured) and his jailers to justice
‘She was forced to count the lashes, restarting if she counted wrong,’ the report stated.
‘And all the time, her interrogator insulted her, shouted at her and threaten sexual violence.’
Janan says she counted more than 100 lashes in two hours and when she got back to her cell, she could not stand.
Only one of the interviewees did not mention being subjected to some form of sexual violence during detention in corridors, bathroom and their cells.
Amina, who has a heart condition and was pregnant at the time, was stripped naked during the initial search where officials grabbed her breasts.
Zahira was tied to a bed and gang raped by five men within hours of her detention at Mezzeh Military Airport, which began with an invasive strip search.
She told of how, during one brutal interrogation, she was stripped naked and penetrated ‘in every body cavity’.
Meanwhile Ayda says she was raped underneath a photo of Assad in the Office of the Head of the Republican Guards in Aleppo.
Her attacker then spat on her, called her a terrorist and left her naked on the floor where she was found by soldiers.
Only one of the LDHR interviewees did not mention being subjected to some form of sexual violence during detention in corridors, bathroom and their cell. Pictured: Male prisoners at Adra prison near Damascus
All the women also described startling bad decisions: cells with no lights, no heat in the winter, no fresh air in the summer, and quarters so overcrowded they could barely stand.
Many of the conditions mentioned violated the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (UNSMR) which require adequate air, space, heating, lighting and ventilation.
Three women said lice spread among detainees in the inhumane conditions while two spoke of cockroaches infesting their cells.
Janan was confined to a cell measuring just one metre by two metres while the women in Branch 215, in Damascus, told how 45 of them were packed into one cell.
Even worse in the Political Security Branch in Latakia, where 18 women huddled inside a two by two metre room.
Ayda, who shared a cell with 20 other women, said it was so overcrowded none of them could sit or lie down.
‘None of these women are connected,’ the report says. ‘They were not arrested or detained at the same time or in the same place.
‘Rather their experiences range across many of the Syrian government’s most notorious detention centres.
Seven of the women interviewed for a new report were subjected to ‘extreme physical’ pain repeatedly, often for long periods of time, with weapons including wire and hoses
‘They have become withdrawn, fearful and anxious. The relationships with their families and children have suffered. Their communities regard them with shame.’
LDHR are hopeful their findings, compiled under the Istanbul Protocol, the UN’s methodology on how to recognise and document signs and symptoms of torture so the documentation may serve as valid evidence in court – will be presented as evidence in future cases constructed on the same basis.
Dr Rami Khazi, a neurosurgeon and founding member of LDHR, helped compile the report.
He told the Independent: ‘There were too many women to choose from, with horrible stories, when we set about compiling this report.
‘I have often felt powerless during the war. This is documenting our history, no matter how terrible it is, and probably the only way the Syrian people will ever have some justice.’