- Title: Former Syrian prisoner describes his life in Sednaya prison
- Date: 14th January 2025
- Summary: SEDNAYA, SYRIA (DECEMBER 31, 2024) (REUTERS) ARMED MEN STANDING OUTSIDE SEDNAYA PRISON SIGN ON WALL READING: (Arabic) 'HUMAN SLAUGHTERHOUSE' VARIOUS OF SYRIAN FORMER PRISONER, AHMED KHALIL AL-KHOULI, HEADING TO HIS CELL BLANKETS ON FLOOR KHOULI TALKING ABOUT HIS CELL VARIOUS OF KHOULI SHOWING BATHROOM IN HIS CELL (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) SYRIAN FORMER PRISONER, AHMED KHALIL AL
- Embargoed: 28th January 2025 13:16
- Keywords: Assad Sednaya Syria prison
- Location: SEDNAYA AND DOUMA, SYRIA
- City: SEDNAYA AND DOUMA, SYRIA
- Country: Syria
- Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,Middle East,Civil Unrest
- Reuters ID: LVA001305414012025RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:PART AUDIO AS INCOMING
A few weeks after his release, Ahmed Khalil al-Khouli returned to Sednaya prison where he was held for five years.
Khouli, 42, said he was falsely accused of “terrorism” and was held in a small prison cell with six other people.
In Sednaya prison, he was waiting for his execution after being sentenced to death, he said.
Khouli was released on December 8, 2024 when Islamist fighters of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham entered the capital and took control of Syria.
Now he spends his time with his wife, daughter and two sons in his house in Douma, in Damascus suburbs, and says he will stay in the country and look for a job.
After Bashar al-Assad's ousting in December during a swift rebel advance that ended five decades of family rule, the regime's detention centers opened their gates, spilling thousands of prisoners back into the world.
Thousands of prisoners came out of Assad's notorious detention system after he was toppled in December, but the whereabouts remain unknown for many of them.
Rights groups have reported mass executions in Syria's prisons during Assad's rule, and the United States said in 2017 it had identified a new crematorium at Sednaya for hanged prisoners. Torture was widely documented.
(Production: Ayman Sahely, Zohra Bensemra, Firas Makdesi, Kinda Makieh) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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