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Reuters

Bewildered and elated prisoners poured out of Syrian jails on Sunday, shouting with joy as they emerged from one of the world’s most notorious detention systems and walked to freedom following the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s government.
All across Syria, families wept as they were reunited with children, siblings, spouses and parents who vanished years ago into the impregnable gulag of the Assad dynasty’s five-decade rule.
A video verified by Reuters showed newly freed prisoners running through the Damascus streets, holding up the fingers of both hands to show how many years they had been in prison, asking passers-by what had happened, not immediately understanding that Assad had fallen.
“We toppled the regime!” a voice shouted and a prisoner yelled and skipped with delight in the same video.

A man watching the prisoners rush through the dawn streets put his hands to his head, exclaiming with wonder: “Oh my god, the prisoners!”
Throughout the civil war that began in 2011, security forces held hundreds of thousands of people seized into detention camps where international human rights organisations say torture was universal practice. Families were often told nothing of the fate of their loved ones.
As insurgents seized one city after another in a dizzying eight-day campaign, prisons were often among their first objectives.
The most notorious prisons in and around Damascus itself were finally opened on the uprising’s final night and the early hours of Sunday.
When they reached Sednaya prison, rebels shot the lock off the gate, a video showed, using more gunfire to open closed doors leading to cells. Men poured out into corridors and a courtyard, cheering and helping them open more cells.
In a video uploaded by Step News Agency, a grey-haired man leapt into the arms of relatives in a sudden, disbelieving hug, the three men clasping each other and sobbing with joy before one fell to his knees, still clutching the freed man’s legs.




The pan-Arab Arabiya news channel showed a family arriving in Damascus by car from Jordan to meet their newly released son, the elderly mother’s voice breaking with emotion as she told the interviewer he had been freed after 14 years.
Reuters was not immediately able to verify the locations of some of the videos, though no one disputed that prisons were opened across the country.
In what was purported to be the women’s block at Sednaya prison on the Damascus outskirts, perhaps the most notorious in the country, a rebel recorded the moment he reached cells and pulled open the doors for prisoners who seemed to have had little idea they were about to be freed.
“May God honour you!” a woman shouted to the men freeing her. As they left their cells a toddler could be seen walking the corridor, having apparently been held in the prison along with his mother.
“He [Assad] has fallen. Don’t be scared,” a voice shouted, trying to reassure the prisoners that they faced no more danger.
In another video, a deafening roar erupted as rebels marched down a corridor, said to be in the prison at Mezzeh airbase southwest of the old centre of Damascus.

Prisoners leaned through the bars at the top of doors and banged on the sides of their cells as shouts of joy echoed all around.
One video showed a shaven-headed man squatting on his heels, trembling and barely able to answer the rebels asking his name and where he was from.
Over the years, thousands of Syrians were brusquely informed by authorities that their relatives had been executed, sometimes years earlier.
The United States said in 2017 it had evidence of a new crematorium built at Sednaya especially to dispose of bodies of thousands of inmates hanged during the war.
Some of the most disturbing information about Assad’s prison system came with thousands of photographs smuggled out of Syria by a military photographer code-named Caesar who defected to the West in 2013.
His photographs of thousands of killed detainees showed clear marks of torture and starvation and for many families provided the first evidence that imprisoned relatives were dead.
A few kilometres from Sednaya early on Sunday, a stream of freed prisoners was recorded walking towards Damascus, many lugging sacks of belongings on their backs, and chanting “God is great!”


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Syria

In Syria, bewildered, elated prisoners pour out as Assad’s jails flung open

Syrian regime soldiers are led by rebel soldiers as people look on in Homs, Syria. Photo: EPA-EFE

Individuals, reportedly freed prisoners, in the streets of Damascus. Photo: Nedal Al-Amari via Reuters

A satellite view of part of the Sednaya prison complex near Damascus, Syria in 2017. File photo: Department of State via Reuters

Israel calls Syria its fourth front after rushing troops to the Golan

Israeli soldiers near armoured vehicles parked along the so-called Alpha Line that separates the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights from Syria. Photo: AP

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz visit an observation point on Mt Bental on the Golan Heights bordering Syria. Photo: Koby Gideon/GPO/dpa 

People shoot in the air as they celebrate the fall of the Syrian government in Damascus, Syria, Sunday. Photo: AP

Syrian rebels topple President Assad, prime minister calls for free elections

Members of the Syrian community wave Syrian flags on Sunday in Vienna, Austria. Photo: AFP

A Syrian Kurd waves the flag of YPG (People’s Protection Units) near Qamishli’s airport in northeastern Syria on Sunday. Photo: AFP

Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad (left) meeting with the UAE’s Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, in Abu Dhabi in 2022. Photo: AFP

Syrian rebel leader Abu Mohammed al-Golani. Photo: Reuters

Syria rebels claim to reach city of Daraa, as they seek to topple Assad

Tanks are seen as rebels seek to capitalise on their capture of Aleppo and Hama by pressing onwards to Homs on Friday. Photo: Reuters

Anti-government fighters in Daraa, Syria, on Saturday. Photo: AFP

Rebel fighters stand on a seized Syrian Air Force fighter plane at the Hama military airport on Friday. Photo: AP

People demolish a statue of the former President of Syria, Hafez al-Assad – President Bashar al-Assad’s father – in Daraa, on Saturday. Photo: Social media via Reuters 

People ride on vehicles with their belongings on Friday in Hama, Syria, after rebels sought to capitalise on their swift takeover of Aleppo and Hama by pressing onwards to Homs. Photo: Reuters

Syria rebels say they control Homs, are advancing on capital Damascus

A rebel fighter sits on the back of a vehicle in the Homs countryside on Saturday. Photo: Reuters

A rebel fighter gives the victory sign while standing on a military aircraft that belonged to forces loyal to the Assad government at Hama’s military airport on Saturday. Photo: Reuters

A truck pulls the head of the toppled statue of late Syrian president Hafez al-Assad through the streets of Hama on Friday. Photo: AFP

Armed men pose for pictures near a burning military vehicle belonging to the Syrian regime forces in the Hama area on Saturday. Photo: AFP

News

World

Middle East

Prisons thrown open across Syria as President Bashar al-Assad’s ruling dynasty ends


Prisons thrown open across Syria as President Bashar al-Assad’s ruling dynasty ends.


Syrian conflict

War and conflict

United States

Crime