Syrian man shares years of horrors of years spent in Sednaya prison

(MENAFN) A Syrian man who endured nearly six years in the notorious Sednaya prison recounted his experiences of torture and the moment he regained freedom following the regime’s fall last year, according to reports.

Ammar Dughmush, a resident of Damascus, was among thousands systematically subjected to abuse at Sednaya, widely regarded as one of the harshest detention centers under Bashar al-Assad’s former regime.

Dughmush was captured during a 2018 ambush in Eastern Ghouta and initially detained at the Mezzeh Military Airport intelligence branch before being transferred to Sednaya, often described as a "human slaughterhouse." He remembered being confined in a meat refrigeration truck with 145 other detainees and beaten upon arrival. “From the moment I entered that place, my life turned into a complete disaster,” he said.

Accused of “being armed,” Dughmush was tortured at Mezzeh and coerced into signing a confession. “They tied my hands behind my back and hung me from the ceiling. My shoulders almost dislocated,” he recalled, adding that his joints were repeatedly struck with sticks.

At Sednaya, Dughmush described extreme overcrowding in a cell measuring roughly 8 by 16 feet. “It was meant for 60, but held 120 of us. We slept stacked on top of each other. In the mornings, some were found dead from suffocation.” He detailed a cruel punishment in which the prison’s only fan was turned off, noting, “The cell, buried underground, would run out of oxygen in minutes. We couldn’t breathe.”

He also highlighted the rampant spread of disease, saying, “People would start hallucinating, lose bladder control, and die within three days. There was no medication.”

Dughmush’s account provides a stark glimpse into the brutal conditions and systemic abuse faced by detainees under the Assad regime.

MENAFN09122025000045017281ID1110456061