Saydnaya Prison is a “slaughterhouse” and a symbol of the atrocities of the Assad regime

Former prisoners say no other building in war-torn Syria symbolizes the atrocities of the Assad family regime more than Saydnaya Prison, so much so that they have nicknamed it a “slaughterhouse.”
There, officers from the ousted government of Bashar al-Assad were said to have been torturing and killing on a “very large scale.”
Before Bashar, his father, Hafez al-Assad, imprisoned people there in harsh conditions, former prisoners say.

After the fall of the Assad regime, new details emerged about the conditions in Saydnaya, where the White Helmets estimated that between 50 and 100 people may have been executed daily and then burned in ovens.
Searching for a “ray of hope” For the families, a frantic search began for any trace of their imprisoned or missing relatives who had not been heard from for years or decades.
Muhammad Abdel Aziz, who came from Aleppo to Damascus, was searching for his father in Saydnaya when security forces arrested him in 2000. Muhammad was seven years old at the time.
He said: “We were looking for a glimmer of hope, but to no avail.”
Some of those who return empty-handed from prison hold symbolic funerals and memorial rituals for relatives who may be lost forever, according to eyewitnesses.