- Syrian rebel leader says he’ll close former president Assad’s notorious prisons
- Abu Mohammed al-Jolani led the offensive that toppled the Assad regime
- Assad’s prisons reportedly claimed the lives of nearly 60,000 detainees
- Abu Mohammed al-Jolani also says he won’t pardon anyone involved in torture
Syrian rebel leader pledges to close Assad prisons and hold torturers accountable
Syrian rebel forces have announced plans to shut down the brutal prisons once operated by ousted president Bashar al-Assad and bring those responsible for torture and killings to justice.
Ahmed al-Sharaa, widely known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, leader of the rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), declared that the former regime’s notorious security apparatus would be dismantled. The statement, reported by Reuters, came after the fall of Assad’s government.
Videos shared on social media showed the release of thousands of detainees from Saydnaya prison, a facility described by human rights organisations as a “human slaughterhouse.” Assad’s prisons reportedly claimed the lives of nearly 60,000 detainees, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
No pardons for those involved in prison torture
The collapse of the Assad regime followed a rapid offensive led by HTS and other rebel factions, ending the Assad family’s 54-year rule. Assad fled to Russia early Sunday, where he and his family were granted asylum after rebels seized Damascus.
In a separate statement, Jolani ruled out any possibility of pardoning those involved in the torture and killings of prisoners.
Following Assad’s fall, Syrians have flocked to former regime prisons, searching for missing family members. A 2022 report from the Turkey-based Association of Detainees and The Missing in Saydnaya Prison described the facility as a “death camp” during the civil war, which began in 2011.
