Despairing Syrians search notorious Sednaya prison for missing relatives

Syria civil war: Families hunt through labyrinthine Sedanya prison complex; thousands wait outside hoping for news of loved ones; efforts to find prisoners in hidden cells fruitless

As families desperately scoured the filthy cells of Syria's forbidding Sednaya prison on Monday (December 9, 2024) for any sign of long-detained relatives after its gates were flung open by rebels, hope for finding missing loved ones began to fade.

Thousands of prisoners spilled out of president Bashar al-Assad's pitiless detention system after he was toppled on Sunday (December 8, 2024), sometimes to tearful reunions with relatives who believed they had been executed years earlier.

But countless families were still trawling dark corridors and hidden cells in the labyrinthine complex for a trace of loved ones detained for attending protests, defying authorities or simply voicing discontent.

Ahmed Najjar had come to Damascus from Aleppo, hoping to find his brother’s two children, seized by Mr. Assad’s security forces in 2012.

“We’re looking. They’re saying there’s an underground prison,” he said.

Rumours spread on Sunday (December 8, 2024) that thousands more inmates were still imprisoned in underground cells that could not be reached.

The White Helmets rescue organisation, which for years has dug through fallen buildings after air strikes, deployed a team.