Aubin Eymard and Cian Ward write:

Crowning the top of a small hill, surrounded by the rocky outcroppings of the Anti-Lebanon mountain range about 20 miles north of Damascus, Sednaya Prison has attracted thousands of Syrians since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime on Dec. 8.

For more than half a century, many of the secrets of the regime’s inner workings remained impenetrable. Sednaya was one of the best kept.

“Until last Sunday, people could drive by the prison, but they could never take the road that goes off to our right,” our guide Labib explains. At the bend, an army checkpoint blocks the road leading to what Amnesty International once called the “human slaughterhouse.”

“For those who passed this checkpoint, there was never any possibility of coming out,” he says.

Now, a gigantic sign displays the flag of the revolution, on which is written in capital letters, “Free Syria.” At the entrance, bearded gunmen let people through with a lazy wave.

A few hours after Assad fled to Russia, the fighters of the rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham entered the Sednaya complex. There was little struggle, as abandoned tanks littered the sides of the road. All those responsible for the horrors inside had already fled. The rebels freed several hundred prisoners, some of whom believed they were still under the yoke of Hafez al-Assad, the newly deposed dictator’s father, who died in 2000. [Continue reading…]