'Crimes against humanity': Syrians recall horrors of Assad regime's massacres and prisons
Residents of the Tadamon neighbourhood shared their fear of telling anyone of the massacre that occurred on their streets, ITV News Correspondent Emma Murphy reports from Damascus
Syrians have recalled some of the Assad regime's "crimes against humanity," including a massacre where dozens of men were thrown into a pit and shot, and squalid prisons where thousands feared they would "never get out".
ITV News International Editor Emma Murphy paid a visit to the Tadamon neighbourhood in the Syrian capital of Damascus, where it is believed dozens of men were blindfolded, thrown into a pit and shot in 2013.
Some murders were captured on camera, with videos only being released in 2022.
Now after the fall of President Bashar al-Assad's regime over the weekend, Murphy said there is a possibility the site of the massacre can be excavated and investigated to provide the families of victims with answers.
Local resident, Abeeb Nimer, recalled how the local community knew about the massacre but no one "dared" to speak up until Assad's was toppled.
"We know there were massacres, we know there was death, killing and oppression, but nobody but no one dared to approach here or say a single word or open his mouth," he told ITV News.
"You walk, your mouth is shut."
The horrors of Assad's regime were felt by all in Syria, especially by those held in the country's many prisons.
Syria's prisons are infamous for systematic torture, disease and starvation, as claimed by human rights groups, whistleblowers, and former detainees.
One of the thousands of Syrians held in Assad's prisons told ITV News he thought he would "never get out" after being subject to torture in a tiny cell.
Wael Hamoud was detained after an explosion near his workplace and imprisoned in a tiny cell for 12 days.
He described to Murphy how he was forced to stand for three days with his arms tied to a metal pipe on the ceiling. He said that on the final day, his thigh was significantly swollen.
"On the first and second day (of imprisonment) I thought we will never get out," he explained.
Others, like Moyadeen Hendi, told Murphy of the trauma that left him unable to even look at another jail.
He described crouching in a cell so confined that he could not walk when he was finally freed.
Prisoners were often packed into tiny cells, with just blankets on the floor for beds. The only daylight the prisoners would have seen for years on end was in a tiny courtyard.
Some held in Assad's prisons never escaped and were killed by the regime's men.
Amnesty International estimated that in Sednaya prison, known as the "human slaughterhouse," up to 13,000 Syrians were killed between 2011 and 2016.
The leader of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Syrian rebels who toppled Assad, said they plan to close the notorious prisons run by Assad's regime and warned that those involved in the torture of detainees will be hunted down.
"We ask countries to hand over those who fled so we can achieve justice," Ahmed al-Sharaa, also known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani, said in a statement on Thursday, according to Syrian state TV's Telegram channel.
On Sunday, HTS toppled President Assad's regime, ending his family's 50-year iron rule.
Mohammed al-Bashir has been named as the country's new interim prime minister, state media reported. Al-Bashir is set to stay in the position until March 1.
The Biden administration said it would recognise and support a new Syrian government that renounces terrorism, destroys chemical weapons, and protects the rights of women and minorities but did not specify which groups it would work with.
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