Former prisoners who were prisoned in the “Palestine Branch” prison, one of the most feared prisons of the Assad regime in Syria, described their life in the cells and the horrific tortures of regime soldiers.
“They first brought me here; I was staying in this toilet, where I also took a bath. They were constantly torturing us here. They would beat us by leaning our heads against the wall and beat us more if we lifted our heads. Then they would put us back in our cells in the dirt. Prisoners would carve their names on the wall. We would use cigarette butts to write on the wall. The guards would throw their cigarettes inside after smoking them. There were white and red sections in the prison. This is where the white soldiers were held. In the red section, terrorists and innocents were held. Fugitive soldiers were also held in the white section. Even if you were not a terrorist, they would still put you in the red section,” said Nadir Aptah, who was imprisoned over terrorism after reacting against the regime soldiers who damaged his house and was later transported to the Sednaya Prison.
“We could not make eye contact with the guards. We shared one loaf of bread a day with six people. We were given one loaf of bread every day. The breads were lavash bread. We were called by the numbers of the charges, not our names. Number 15 was for a minor crime; number 51 was for the death penalty. Innocent people were even executed because number 15 was mixed up with 51. The trial system was so unfair. We were forced to sleep on top of each other in the cells,” said another prisoner named Mahmoud Sıtivi.