Thousands scour Syria’s most horrific prison but find no sign of their loved ones

Thousands scour Syria’s most horrific prison but find no sign of their loved ones
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This aerial photo shows traffic as people gathering at the main entrance of the Sednaya prison in Damascus on December 9, 2024. (AFP)
Thousands scour Syria’s most horrific prison but find no sign of their loved ones
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People pray as they gather at Sednaya prison in Damascus looking for loved ones on December 9, 2024. (AFP)
Thousands scour Syria’s most horrific prison but find no sign of their loved ones
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Syrian rescuers searched the Sednaya jail, synonymous with the worst atrocities of ousted president Bashar al-Assad's rule, as people in the capital on December 9 gathered to celebrate a day after Assad fled while Islamist-led militants swept into the capital, ending five decades of brutal rule over a country ravaged by one of the deadliest wars of the century. (AFP)
Thousands scour Syria’s most horrific prison but find no sign of their loved ones
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People gather at the Sednaya prison in Damascus looking for loved ones on December 9, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 10 December 2024
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Thousands scour Syria’s most horrific prison but find no sign of their loved ones

Thousands scour Syria’s most horrific prison but find no sign of their loved ones

DAMASCUS: They came from all over Syria, tens of thousands. The first place they rushed to after the fall of their longtime tormentor, former President Bashar Assad, was here: Saydnaya Prison, a place so notorious for its horrors it was long known as “the slaughterhouse.”
For the past two days, all have been looking for signs of loved ones who disappeared years or even decades ago into the secretive, sprawling prison just outside Damascus.
But hope gave way to despair Monday. People opened the heavy iron doors lining the hallways to find cells inside empty. With sledgehammers, shovels and drills, men pounded holes in floors and walls, looking for what they believed were secret dungeons, or chasing sounds they thought they heard from underground. They found nothing.
Insurgents freed dozens of people from the Saydnaya military prison on Sunday when Damascus fell. Since then, almost no one has been found.
“Where is everyone? Where are everyone’s children? Where are they?” said Ghada Assad, breaking down in tears.
She had rushed from her Damascus home to the prison on the capital’s outskirts, hoping to find her brother. He was detained in 2011, the year that protests first erupted against the former president’s rule – before they turned into a long, grueling civil war. She didn’t know why he was arrested.
“My heart has been burned over my brother. For 13 years, I kept looking for him,” she said. When insurgents last week seized Aleppo — her original hometown — at the start of their swiftly victorious offensive, “I prayed that they would reach Damascus just so they can open up this prison,” she said.
Civil defense officials helping in the search were as confused as the families over why no further inmates were being found. It appeared fewer were held here in recent weeks, they said.
But few were giving up, a sign of how powerfully Saydnaya looms in the minds of Syrians as the heart of Assad’s brutal police state. The sense of loss over the missing — and the sudden hope they might be found — brought a kind of dark unity among Syrians from across the country.
During Assad’s rule and particularly after the 2011 protests began, any hint of dissent could land someone in Saydnaya. Few ever emerged.
In 2017, Amnesty International estimated that 10,000-20,000 people were being held there at the time “from every sector of society.” It said they were effectively slated for “extermination.”
Thousands were killed in frequent mass executions, Amnesty reported, citing testimony from freed prisoners and prison officials. Prisoners were subjected to constant torture, intense beatings and rape. Almost daily, guards did rounds of the cells to collect bodies of inmates who had died overnight from injuries, disease or starvation. Some inmates fell into psychosis and starved themselves, the human rights group said.
“There is not a home, there is not a woman in Syria who didn’t lose a brother, a child or a husband,” said Khairiya Ismail, 54. Two of her sons were detained in the early days of the protests against Assad – one of them when he came to visit her after she herself had been detained.
Ismail, accused of helping her son evade military service, spent eight months in Adra prison, northeast of Damascus. “They detained everyone.”
An estimated 150,000 people were detained or went missing in Syria since 2011 — and tens of thousands of them are believed to have gone through Saydnaya.
“People expected many more to be here ... They are clinging to the slightest sliver of hope,” said Ghayath Abu Al-Dahab, a spokesman for the White Helmets, the search and rescue group that operated in rebel-held areas throughout the war.
Five White Helmet teams, with two canine teams, came to Saydnaya to help the search. They even brought in the prison electrician, who had the floor plan, and went through every shaft, vent and sewage opening. So far, there were no answers, Abu Al-Dahab said.
He said the civil defense had documents showing more than 3,500 people were in Saydnaya until three months before the fall of Damascus. But the number may have been less by the time the prison was stormed, he said.
“There are other prisons,” he said. “The regime had turned all of Syria into a big prison.” Detainees were held in security agencies, military facilities, government offices and even universities, he added.
Around the Y-shaped main building of the prison, everyone kept trying, convinced they could find some hidden chamber with detainees, dead or alive.
Dozens of men tried to force a metal gate open until they realized it led only to more cells upstairs. Others asked the insurgents guarding the prison to use their rifle to lever open a closed door.
A handful of men were gathered, excavating what looked like a sewage opening in a basement. Others dug up electrical wiring, thinking it might lead to hidden underground chambers.
In a scene throughout the day, hundreds cheered as men with sledgehammers and shovels battered a huge column in the building’s atrium, thinking they had found a secret cell. Hundreds ran to see. But there was nothing, and tears and loud sighs replaced the celebrations.
In the wards, lines of cells were empty. Some had blankets, a few plastic pots or a few names scribbled on walls. Documents, some with names of prisoners, were left strewn in the yard, the kitchen and elsewhere. Families scoured them for their loved ones’ names.
A brief protest broke out in the prison yard, when a group of men began chanting: “Bring us the prison warden.” Calls on social media urged anyone with information of the secret cells of the prison to come forth and help.
Firas Al-Halabi, one of the prisoners freed when insurgents first broke into Saydnaya, was back on Monday visiting. Those searching flocked around him, whispering names of relatives to see if he met them.
Al-Halabi, who had been an army conscript when he was arrested, said he spent four years in a cell with 20 others.
His only food was a quarter loaf of bread and some burghul. He suffered from tuberculosis because of the cell conditions. He was tortured by electrocution, he said, and the beatings were constant.
“During our time in the yard, there was beating. When going to the bathroom, there was beating. If we sat on the floor, we got beaten. If you look at the light, you are beaten,” he said. He was once thrown into solitary for simply praying in his cell.
“Everything is considered a violation,” he said. “Your life is one big violation to them.”
He said that in his first year in the prison guards would call out hundreds of names over the course of days. One officer told him it was for executions.
When he was freed Sunday, he thought he was dreaming. “We never thought we would see this moment. We thought we would be executed, one by one.”
Noha Qweidar and her cousin sat in the yard on Monday, taking a rest from searching. Their husbands were detained in 2013 and 2015. Qweidar said she had received word from other inmates that her husband was killed in a summary execution in prison.
But she couldn’t know for sure. Prisoners reported dead in the past have turned up alive.
“I heard that (he was executed) but I still have hope he is alive.”
Just before sundown on Monday, rescue teams brought in an excavator to dig deeper.
But late at night, the White Helmets announced the end of their search, saying in a statement they had found no hidden areas in the facility.
“We share the profound disappointment of the families of the thousands who remain missing and whose fates are unknown.”


UAE’s president receives phone call from US secretary of state

UAE’s president receives phone call from US secretary of state
Updated 5 sec ago
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UAE’s president receives phone call from US secretary of state

UAE’s president receives phone call from US secretary of state
  • Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan tells Marco Rubio that 2-state solution is key for peace in Middle East

LONDON:  Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, the president of the UAE, received a phone call from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday.

The UAE’s president told Rubio that a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was the key to peace in the Middle East.

Sheikh Mohamed emphasized the need for a just and lasting peace in the region, ensuring security and stability for everyone, the Emirates News Agency reported.

The parties discussed ways to strengthen cooperation across various fields to serve the countries’ strategic relationship.


Egypt projects 4% growth in 2025 amid strong economic reforms

Egypt projects 4% growth in 2025 amid strong economic reforms
Updated 37 min 33 sec ago
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Egypt projects 4% growth in 2025 amid strong economic reforms

Egypt projects 4% growth in 2025 amid strong economic reforms
  • Results of fiscal discipline, says economy minister Rania Al-Mashat
  • Increased capital inflows, foreign direct investment being recorded

DUBAI: Egypt is likely to record 4 percent growth at the end of 2025, the nation’s Planning and Economic Development Minister Rania Al-Mashat said at the World Governments Summit on Wednesday.

In a session titled “The Regional Economic Outlook of 2025,” Al-Mashat, presented an optimistic view of Egypt’s trajectory amid global challenges.

Panelists during the session addressed disruptions Egypt has faced, notably the 70 percent decline in Suez Canal revenues.

In addition, they highlighted geopolitical tensions stemming from President Donald Trump’s recent threats to displace Palestinians to Egypt and Jordan.

Despite these challenges, Al-Mashat emphasized Egypt’s resilience and strategic economic measures.

“At the outset, macroeconomic stability is a necessary condition for growth and private sector engagement,” she said.

She detailed Egypt’s home-grown program with the International Monetary Fund since March 2024, focusing on fiscal consolidation, reducing domestic debt, stringent public investment discipline, and tighter monetary policy to control inflation.

These measures have restored macroeconomic stability, leading to increased capital inflows and foreign direct investment.

Al-Mashat reported 3.2 percent growth in the first quarter of the 2024/2025 fiscal year, with notable performance in the manufacturing sector, signifying stronger integration with global value chains.

However, she stressed that macroeconomic stability alone was insufficient without structural reforms aimed at increasing competitiveness, private sector involvement, and promoting the green transition.

Egypt has attracted nearly $4 billion in renewable energy investments over the past year, positioning itself as a regional energy hub.

“Agility and resilience are key,” she noted, projecting a 4 percent growth rate by year-end, despite global headwinds such as inflationary pressures and monetary policy shifts.

Al-Mashat concluded by emphasizing Egypt’s proactive stance in financing for development, including domestic resource mobilization, debt swaps, and concessional finance for the green transition, all vital for Egypt’s economic future.


‘We are gearing towards becoming a multiplanetary species,’ says UAE space director

‘We are gearing towards becoming a multiplanetary species,’ says UAE space director
Updated 56 min 45 sec ago
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‘We are gearing towards becoming a multiplanetary species,’ says UAE space director

‘We are gearing towards becoming a multiplanetary species,’ says UAE space director

DUBAI: All the UAE’s space projects are gearing toward humanity becoming a multiplanetary species, Salem Al-Marri, director-general of the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center, told the World Governments Summit on Wednesday.

Speaking to Arab News, Al-Marri discussed the UAE’s partnership with the Saudi space mission. 

“Having our (Saudi Arabia and the UAE) astronauts in space at the same time is the first time we had that many Arabs in space at one time,” he said.

Al-Marri said he hoped to have the two countries work together more extensively and share resources to further develop the Arab space industry.

“We’d love to have our astronauts visit Saudi along with the Saudi astronauts, Rayyanah Barnawi and Ali Al-Qarni, have some joint outreach activities and really take it from there. I think also from the research perspective, the data, the outreach, we are now working on different projects that we will announce soon,” he added.

But Al-Marri jokingly revealed that he, personally, was not ready to relocate to Mars, even if the opportunity were to come up tomorrow.

“Not in my lifetime, no. If there’s a return ticket then yes, if it’s a visit for a couple of years and coming back, I would do that. But I think within the next decade we would see some sort of human presence on Mars for a quick type of mission,” he said.

“The global exploration roadmap is moving towards trying to get a permanent presence on the moon and around the moon, and then using that to go to Mars,” he said. 

In a panel discussion with Salem Butti Al-Qubaisi, director-general of the UAE Space Agency, the directors discussed UAE’s space missions and progress since the UAE space mission to Mars was announced in 2014.

“We see a big benefit of having these astronauts sent into space, performing hundreds of experiments, which benefit us here on the ground,” Al-Marri said.

When asked if the UAE’s scarcity of water in any way limited the space mission, both directors said it served as motivation for the project to go further.

“One of the main objectives of the space mission is to help understand water. We can see if there are other sources of water available. If we are planning to go deeper into space we must ensure that there are adequate resources out there,” Al-Qubaisi said.

Al-Marri said MBRSC’s goal and motivation was to see an Emirati on the moon in the next 10 years.

The UAE Astronaut Program was launched in 2017 by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, the vice president and prime minister of the UAE, and Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, who was deputy supreme commander of the UAE Armed Forces at the time and is now the UAE president.

Sultan Al-Neyadi was the first Emarati and Arab astronaut to undertake a long-term space mission and the first to complete a spacewalk.

Al-Neyadi, together with NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoburg and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, were part of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 that lifted off on March 2, 2023 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The crew conducted more than 200 science experiments and technology demonstrations during their stay at the space station and returned to earth on Sept. 4, 2023.

 


Hamas says group’s delegation in Cairo for talks on Gaza ceasefire

Hamas says group’s delegation in Cairo for talks on Gaza ceasefire
Updated 12 February 2025
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Hamas says group’s delegation in Cairo for talks on Gaza ceasefire

Hamas says group’s delegation in Cairo for talks on Gaza ceasefire

GAZA: Hamas said on Wednesday a delegation headed by its chief negotiator had arrived in Cairo for Gaza truce talks, which a group official said were aimed at ending the “current crisis” in implementing the ceasefire.
“A delegation headed by Khalil Al-Hayya, head of the Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip, arrived in Cairo and began meetings with Egyptian officials, and followed up on the implementation of the ceasefire agreement,” Hamas said in a statement. An official told AFP the delegation “will discuss ways to end the current crisis and ensure the occupation’s commitment to implementing the agreement.”


Trump pressure on Gazans and regional powers might lead to grave conflicts, says Arab League chief

Trump pressure on Gazans and regional powers might lead to grave conflicts, says Arab League chief
Updated 12 February 2025
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Trump pressure on Gazans and regional powers might lead to grave conflicts, says Arab League chief

Trump pressure on Gazans and regional powers might lead to grave conflicts, says Arab League chief
  • Aboul Gheit emphasized that the Palestinian state must be recognized
  • Aboul Gheit said that there had been no Arab defeat, but rather that there had been progress and readiness for any cooperation to coexist between the Palestinians and Israelis within one space

DUBAI: The Arab League’s secretary-general on Wednesday warned that if US President Donald Trump continued to pressure Gazans and regionally influential powers, this “might lead the region to a new round of grave conflicts.”

“In my opinion, I see that (happening) if President Trump continues in this manner to pressure Gazans, the Arab world, Egyptians, Jordanians, and the region’s influential powers,” said Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit.

“I imagine that instead of settling the Palestinian cause, justly and based on the two-state solution, this might lead the region (the Middle East) to a new round of grave conflicts between Arabs and Israel,” Aboul Gheit told the World Government Summit on Wednesday.

Addressing a packed auditorium during a session titled “The State of the Arab World,” the secretary-general said that “any plans to evacuate the Palestinian territories of their residents” must be rejected, and pointed out that “an acceptable settlement” must be achieved between the two parties.

Alongside Aboul Gheit was Jasem Al-Budaiwi, who is secretary-general of the General Secretariat of the Gulf Cooperation Council, in a session moderated by the Egyptian journalist and businessman Imad Eddine Adib.

Aboul Gheit emphasized that the Palestinian state must be recognized and the “Palestinians must be given their rights.”

He said the US suggestions were unacceptable to Arabs, and in particular Palestinians, warning against the repercussions of US policy on the paths of “peace and understanding” in the region.

After a question by Adib on Trump’s statement on Tuesday, the Arab League head replied: “Right at the moment, the problem as I see it, is that the American vision is an ambiguous one … in the sense that it envisions settling the Middle East conflict through finishing the Palestinian existence, Palestinian character and Palestinian identity in Gaza.

“This is not a settlement (of the conflict) but is rather transferring the conflict to a phase that exceeds Gaza and Israel, making it reach the global level.”

Aboul Gheit added: “If you wish to send the Palestinians to Canada or Argentina, they will fight (for their cause) from there … they will fight from Canada and Argentina. We must understand this … it (Palestine) is their land.”

The senior Egyptian diplomat hopes that a cycle of new conflicts does not occur because it will have negative effects on stability and on everything that “we have built in the region over the period from 1978 (Camp David) and the Egyptian-Israeli understanding until this moment.”

Aboul Gheit said that there had been no Arab defeat, but rather that there had been progress and readiness for any cooperation to coexist between the Palestinians and Israelis within one space.

“On the Palestinian issue, it is not necessary to implement President Trump’s words on the ground. The words are ‘give and take’ and we must complete our efforts with the two-state solution initiative,” Al-Budaiwi said.

During the session, the Arab League’s secretary-general hinted at the differences between the Fatah Movement and Hamas, saying the Palestinian people were in dire need, and the people who are most in need of an Arabic-Arabic and Palestinian-Palestinian agreement and accord.

Meanwhile, the GCC’s secretary-general said that there were clear constants regarding the Palestinian cause, at the forefront of which is the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and the return of refugees.

“We in the Cooperation Council work within this framework,” he said.

Al-Budaiwi said the US realized the importance of security and stability in the region, and “we have strategic alliances with the US,” noting that the stance of the  GCC countries does not change, and always stem from the importance of implementing international legitimacy.

“We are optimistic and deal with matters with deliberation and wisdom, and we seek a unified Arab position that aims to obtain the rights of the Palestinian people,” he concluded.