Families and rescue teams in Syria are currently engaged in the search for their missing loved ones at the infamous Sednaya Prison in Damascus following the collapse of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
The White Helmets rescue group is conducting a thorough search of the prison on Monday for any “hidden underground cells believed to be holding detainees.”
For generations, al-Assad’s police state was notorious for being one of the harshest in the Middle East, with a large number of political prisoners detained.
On Sunday, bewildered and joyful inmates were seen leaving Syrian prisons as the government of al-Assad crumbled, marking the end of one of the world’s most notorious detention systems.
Throughout the ongoing war in Syria since 2011, security forces have held a significant number of individuals in detention facilities where widespread human rights violations were reported by international organizations. Families were often left uninformed about the whereabouts of their loved ones.
During the recent swift rebel advances in various cities, prisons became a key target. Notorious prisons in and around Damascus were finally unlocked during the last night of the uprising and the early hours of Sunday.
Across Syria, families expressed tears of joy as they were reunited with family members who had disappeared years ago into the impenetrable prison system of the al-Assad dynasty’s decades-long rule.
