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Saydnaya Prison: Mapping the Assads’ ‘human slaughterhouse’
Since the collapse of the Assad regime on Sunday, Syrian civilians hoping for news of their relatives have been flocking towards the country’s most secretive and notorious prison, Saydnaya.
Established in the early 1980s in a small town about 30km north of the capital Damascus, Saydnaya is where the Assad family has held opponents of their regime for decades.
Referred to as a “human slaughterhouse” by rights groups, thousands of people are said to have been detained, tortured and executed at the prison since the Syrian civil war began in 2011.
The layout of Saydnaya has been a closely guarded secret and images from inside the prison have never been seen before.
Details of the prison’s layout can only be established based on interviews with former guards and detainees.
But information from rights groups and the US State Department have offered an insight into the building which became a powerful symbol of the Assads’ brutal and repressive rule.