Rumors of hidden cells in Sednaya Prison spark search for detainees
Efforts are intensifying to locate and rescue detainees who may still be trapped in hidden underground cells within Sednaya Prison, notoriously referred to as Syria’s "human slaughterhouse."
The Syrian Civil Defense, widely known as the White Helmets, announced on social media platform “X” that five specialized teams are working tirelessly to uncover concealed doors or secret basements in the infamous prison.
The White Helmets have also announced a financial reward of 3,000 US dollars for anyone who provides information leading to the discovery of secret prison locations in Sednaya.
The White Helmets has deployed 5 specialized emergency teams to Sednaya Prison to investigate hidden underground cells, reportedly holding detainees according to survivors. The teams consist of search and rescue units, wall-breaching specialists, iron door-opening crews, trained…
— The White Helmets (@SyriaCivilDef) December 8, 2024
Sednaya is infamous for torture, starvation, and systemic abuse. During the nearly 14 years of civil war, over 100,000 people were forcibly disappeared into Syria's prisons. Thousands, including women and children, have now been freed after the Syrian opposition toppled the Assad family’s half-century grip on power. Families wept as they reunited with loved ones once held on political charges.
In 2013, a military defector known as Caesar exposed the conditions within Syria's prison system by smuggling out photographs of detainees who had suffered from torture, starvation, and disease. Although the regime has since fallen, rumors persist about the existence of hidden underground cells in Sednaya prison, raising concerns that more prisoners may still be held.
Damascus province authorities reported ongoing efforts to free prisoners, some of whom were "almost choking to death" due to poor ventilation. The Damascus Countryside Governorate has issued a public plea to former soldiers and prison workers of the Assad regime to provide the access codes to electronic underground doors.
Opposition forces say they are unable to open some areas of the prison despite CCTV footage showing detainees behind the sealed underground doors.
- Infamous salt rooms -
The Association of Detainees and the Missing of Sednaya Prison (ADMSP) recently released a report confirming the existence of at least two “salt chambers” within the prison.
These chambers serve a grim purpose. After dying, detainees—often left for days with their cellmates—are dumped into small rooms with a 30 cm layer of salt on the floor. The salt, intended to preserve their bodies, is sprinkled atop the corpses until enough accumulates to fill a truck.
At times, these salt chambers function as holding cells; other times, they are tools of psychological torment. Disturbing accounts have surfaced of live detainees, deprived of salt in their diets, being thrown into these chambers filled with corpses.
According to ADMSP, the chambers emerged after 2011, when the death toll in Assad’s prisons became alarming and systematic. A UN investigation once described the methods of death within this system as “extermination.”
“Sednaya prison is a death camp that has borne witness to heinous crimes against humanity,” said Diab Serriya, a co-founder of ADMSP and survivor of Sednaya. “For years horrifying crimes, including mass enforced disappearance, systematic torture, and killings, have taken place inside Sednaya with total impunity and no justice in sight."
