Sednaya Prison ( ), also known as the "Human Slaughterhouse" (), was a Syrian military prison and death camp that the Assad regime operated near Damascus from 1986 until the 2024 Syrian opposition offensives. For just over the first two decades after the first group of inmates arrived in 1987, the prison routinely held civilian detainees and political prisoners, but after the beginning of the Syrian civil war in 2011, it was also used to hold anti-government rebels.
The prison was notorious for being the site of severe human rights violations and war crimes perpetrated by Syrian government forces, including torture, rape, and mass executions. In January 2021, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimated that 30,000 prisoners had been killed by the Assad regime at Sednaya since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war, while Amnesty International estimated in February 2017 that between 5,000 and 13,000 people had been victims of extrajudicial killings at the prison between September 2011 and December 2015.
On 8 December 2024, the prison fell into the hands of Syrian opposition forces after the prison administration agreed to surrender the facility in exchange for their safe withdrawal amidst the opposition offensive into Damascus. Subsequently, the remaining prisoners in the "white" building were released. Rebel forces, however, required several additional days to break into the larger "red" building.
In the aftermath of the fall of the Assad regime during the opposition offensives, the Syrian caretaker government compiled and publicly released a list of escaped Sednaya Prison personnel, who are now among the most wanted fugitives in Syria—second only to members of the Assad family.
History
Establishment (1978–1986) Efforts to establish Sednaya Prison began in 1978, when the Syrian government confiscated land from local landowners, assigning it to the Ministry of Defense to construct a prison. Construction began in 1981 and finished in 1986, with the first detainees arriving in 1987.
Before the Syrian civil war (1987–2011) According to the Syrian Human Rights Committee, the military police changed all the locks of the prison cells on the night of July 4, 2008. On that day, a search operation was launched through all the prison quarters in which the security guards trampled copies of the Quran. The act infuriated Muslim detainees, who rushed to collect the Qur'an copies. The guards opened fire and killed nine of the prisoners. Of the nine deceased, eight were identified: Zakaria Affash, Mohammed Mahareesh, Abdulbaqi Khattab, Ahmed Shalaq, Khalid Bilal, Mo'aid Al-Ali, Mohannad Al-Omar, and Khader Alloush. Later clashes would raise the total number of victims to 25. However, the committee could not ascertain their identities.
According to Diab Serriya, a former detainee who was imprisoned at the time, a fight broke out between a prisoner and a security guard on March 26, 2008, which enraged the prison director Ali Kher Bek. The next day, Bek and accompanying security forces walked through the prison shouting at and insulting prisoners. The security forces dragged the prisoners who were in charge of all the wards from their cells and punished them. Some detainees continuously shouted "Allahu Akbar" and banged on the metal doors. A rebellion broke out that could not be controlled. Serriya told Zaman Alwasel that security forces used tear gas and fired into the air to intimidate prisoners. Many prisoners ran to the roof and began burning blankets, plastic bags, and pieces of wood to signal that the prison was in chaos and that urgent help was needed. When the security forces were unable to regain control, the government initiated negotiations with the prisoners. This incident, known as "the first rebellion", lasted for one day.
The benefits won through "the first rebellion" lasted only a few months until 5 July 2008 when the director launched an offensive to discipline the prisoners. Many fights broke out between the prisoners and the military police until prisoners overpowered them, in addition to exerting control over the whole prison, and retaining more than 1,245 out of 1,500 members of the military police. From the outer fence of the prison, security forces opened fire and killed the first group, which attempted to flee the prison. Fearing suffocation from the tear gas and the bloody scenes inside the building, the prisoners dragged some of the hostages to the roof so they could communicate with the military forces outside and find a way out of the dilemma. However, the government forces opened fire and killed almost 30 military police hostages and some prisoners who were with them. In addition, 10 hostages were killed by the prisoners, and 6 committed suicide out of fear of being killed by the prisoners.
After a long battle, military reinforcements from the capital arrived at Sednaya and laid siege to the prison. After 10 days of negotiation, the government agreed to evacuate the injured who faced torture in Tishreen hospital, and six of them died under torture there.
Human Rights Watch, through its regional Director Sarah Leah Whitson, called on President Bashar al-Assad to immediately order an independent investigation into the police's use of lethal force at Sednaya Prison. SANA, Syria's state-owned news agency, issued a short press release on July 6, stating that "a number of prisoners... incited chaos and breached public order in the prison and attacked other fellow prisoners... during an inspection by the prison administration." Ammar al-Qurabi, the director of the National Organization for Human Rights, commented on SANA's release by asking to form a committee of activists that could visit the detainees and ascertain their conditions. He confirmed that the number of prisoners in Sednaya was between 1500 and 2000.
During the Syrian civil war (2011–2024)
After months of anti-government protests in 2011, many prisoners, including secular and Islamist detainees, were released in several amnesties. Zahran Alloush, Abu Shadi Aboud (brother of Hassan Aboud) and Ahmed Abu Issa were some of the more prominent prisoners released from the prison. After their release, many took up arms against the government and became leaders of Islamist rebel groups, including Jaysh al-Islam, Ahrar ash-Sham, and Suqour al-Sham Brigade in the Syrian civil war.
In 2017, the Association of Detainees and the Missing in Sednaya Prison (ADMSP) was established to support detainees and their relatives.
Fall of the Assad regime (2024)
On 8 December 2024, during the fall of the Assad regime, the prison was captured by rebels, who immediately began releasing political prisoners. Many of the detainees were overjoyed, while others were confused. Security camera footage of detainees, including families and children, appeared on social media.
Rescue efforts and state of liberated prisoners Rebels entered the women's section of the prison, where some had been imprisoned alongside their children, and began to free them. The rebels identified themselves, informed the prisoners that Bashar al-Assad had fallen, and urged the prisoners to "go wherever they wanted". Inmates initially reacted with confusion and disbelief. Some prisoners who had been detained for decades were unaware that Bashar al-Assad's father Hafez had died in 2000 and believed he was still in power, (subscription needed) mistaking the rebels for Ba'athist Iraqi invaders.
During the takeover, rebels discovered underground cells beneath the main prison building where dozens of men were confined in darkness. Prisoners trapped in tunnels under the building called for help, prompting rebels to attempt to break through concrete barriers to reach them as power outages disabled ventilation systems. The cells contained plastic bottles used for urine storage and water-soaked blankets. Rebels uncovered an iron press they alleged was used to compress the remains of executed prisoners. Many released prisoners, having forgotten their own names due to severe trauma, were brought to a nearby mosque for identification. Witnesses reported helicopters landing at the prison on 7 December before rebel forces arrived, apparently evacuating guards and select high-value prisoners.
Search efforts led by the White Helmets concluded on 9 December; they determined no hidden or sealed areas which could contain detainees remained.
Fate of forcibly disappeared prisoners According to Fadel Abdul Ghany, director of the Syrian Network for Human Rights, approximately 2,000 prisoners emerged from Sednaya when it was liberated, though questions remained about the fate of thousands more who were believed to have been held there. Videos obtained by The New York Times showed numbered cells that had each held dozens of prisoners each, littered with debris, clothing, and belongings. While some groups reported higher numbers of releases, ADMSP stated it had documentation showing about 4,300 detainees as of 28 October 2024, with approximately that number having been freed.
Infrastructure
Facilities and alleged underground system Sednaya Prison is located north of the Syrian capital, Damascus, in Rif Dimashq. The prison consisted of two buildings, which housed a total of 10,000–20,000 detainees and was operated by the Syrian Military Police under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Defense. Locals believed that the prison had a hidden underground system that extended three levels below, housing many of the most severely abused prisoners.
"White" and "red" buildings Until a rebel photographed the facility from several kilometers away on 7 December 2024, no images of the prison existed other than satellite photos. Based on the satellite images and testimonies, Sednaya Prison had been described by locals as consisting of two buildings. The "white" building was a smaller L-shaped prison believed to have held disloyal officers before being repurposed in 2011 for protesters. The "red" building was a larger, spoke-shaped structure initially used to hold members of the Fighting Vanguard but later housed political prisoners.
"Salt rooms" There were at least two so-called "salt rooms" at Sednaya, with the first established as early as 2013. One, located on the first floor of the red building, measured approximately 6 by 8 meters (20 by 26 feet), while another was 4 by 5 meters (13 by 16.5 feet) with no toilet. The rooms were covered in a layer of salt (the type usually used for de-icing roads) and were used as mortuaries to preserve dead bodies in the absence of refrigerated morgues. When a detainee at Sednaya died, their body would be left inside a cell with other inmates for two to five days before being taken to the salt room. The rock salt was sourced from Sabkhat al-Jabbul in Aleppo Governorate.
Alleged crematorium On 15 May 2017, the United States Department of State accused the Syrian government of operating a crematorium at the prison to dispose of bodies and destroy evidence of war crimes. This assessment was based on declassified satellite photographs. The photographs, taken over several years starting in 2013, showed building modifications that the State Department interpreted as consistent with a crematorium. More than six Syrians told The New York Times they either witnessed bodies being burned or detected suspicious odors.
However, Amnesty International, which had extensively interviewed former guards and inmates, noted that none had mentioned a crematorium. According to escapees, bodies were typically buried outside the compound. The New York Times reported that Syrian opposition sources and former detainees had alleged the existence of crematoria at other Syrian government detention facilities, including the Mezzeh Air Base, and documented previous instances of government forces burning bodies.
Human rights violations