Ruth Sherlock

It's getting dark, and rescuers end their search in Sednaya. There are no more secret cells, no more hope for families like Husseini. As we leave, we meet Samer Haida. He's come with his four young children.

It's so they remember the bloody legacy of the Assad regime, he says. So that we never forget. Ruth Sherlock, NPR News, Sednaya Prison.

It's so they remember the bloody legacy of the Assad regime, he says. So that we never forget. Ruth Sherlock, NPR News, Sednaya Prison.

It's so they remember the bloody legacy of the Assad regime, he says. So that we never forget. Ruth Sherlock, NPR News, Sednaya Prison.

Yeah, exactly. I mean, there's just this kind of huge outpouring of grief happening right now. And Aisha, the United Nations is saying that some 150,000 people could still be missing. And in Sednaya prison, when the rebels threw open the cell doors, you know, only about 2,000 people apparently came out.

Yeah, exactly. I mean, there's just this kind of huge outpouring of grief happening right now. And Aisha, the United Nations is saying that some 150,000 people could still be missing. And in Sednaya prison, when the rebels threw open the cell doors, you know, only about 2,000 people apparently came out.

Yeah, exactly. I mean, there's just this kind of huge outpouring of grief happening right now. And Aisha, the United Nations is saying that some 150,000 people could still be missing. And in Sednaya prison, when the rebels threw open the cell doors, you know, only about 2,000 people apparently came out.

But there are tens of thousands of people who are believed to have been thrown into that prison during the course of the civil war.

But there are tens of thousands of people who are believed to have been thrown into that prison during the course of the civil war.

But there are tens of thousands of people who are believed to have been thrown into that prison during the course of the civil war.

This really was the big question for us. NPR's regional producer Jawad Rasallah and I, we started searching for people who might be able to help us find information, maybe witnesses to what happened inside Sidnaya. Jawad reached out to Syrian contacts and one person asked another. And in the way that happens, we were eventually put in touch with a former inmate and then another and then another.

This really was the big question for us. NPR's regional producer Jawad Rasallah and I, we started searching for people who might be able to help us find information, maybe witnesses to what happened inside Sidnaya. Jawad reached out to Syrian contacts and one person asked another. And in the way that happens, we were eventually put in touch with a former inmate and then another and then another.

This really was the big question for us. NPR's regional producer Jawad Rasallah and I, we started searching for people who might be able to help us find information, maybe witnesses to what happened inside Sidnaya. Jawad reached out to Syrian contacts and one person asked another. And in the way that happens, we were eventually put in touch with a former inmate and then another and then another.

And two of the men we spoke to had gotten out of the prison just days before, just when those doors were flung open by the rebels. they were really just shadows of their former selves. You know, they were like sickly thin. They had these like ribs protruding and these gaunt faces, their cheekbones were showing.

And two of the men we spoke to had gotten out of the prison just days before, just when those doors were flung open by the rebels. they were really just shadows of their former selves. You know, they were like sickly thin. They had these like ribs protruding and these gaunt faces, their cheekbones were showing.

And two of the men we spoke to had gotten out of the prison just days before, just when those doors were flung open by the rebels. they were really just shadows of their former selves. You know, they were like sickly thin. They had these like ribs protruding and these gaunt faces, their cheekbones were showing.

And one of the men, when we got to his house, his family had laid out this huge platter of sticky Syrian sweets to celebrate his return, but he couldn't touch them because he told us, you know, his stomach, it can't cope with anything that rich after years of what was basically starvation.

And one of the men, when we got to his house, his family had laid out this huge platter of sticky Syrian sweets to celebrate his return, but he couldn't touch them because he told us, you know, his stomach, it can't cope with anything that rich after years of what was basically starvation.

And one of the men, when we got to his house, his family had laid out this huge platter of sticky Syrian sweets to celebrate his return, but he couldn't touch them because he told us, you know, his stomach, it can't cope with anything that rich after years of what was basically starvation.

We interviewed the former prisoners all separately, and all three of the men's testimony of what went on in Sednaya was remarkably similar. One of those men who wanted to be known only by his first name, Adham, he actually decided to do this really difficult thing. He decided to go back to the prison he'd just come out of because he believed in showing it to us.