Sednaya Prison ( Sajn Ṣaydnāyā), nicknamed the "Human Slaughterhouse" is a military prison near Damascus in Syria operated by the Syrian government. The prison has been used to hold thousands of prisoners, both civilian detainees and anti-government rebels. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) estimated in January 2021 that 30,000 detainees have perished in Sednaya from torture, ill-treatment and mass executions since the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War, while Amnesty International estimated in February 2017 "that between 5,000 and 13,000 people were extrajudicially executed at Saydnaya between September 2011 and December 2015."

Overall, human rights organizations have identified over 27 prisons and detention centers run by Assad's regime around the country where detainees are routinely tortured and killed. A defector from Assad's sources smuggled out tens of thousands of photographs from these prisons, showing the bodies of those who had been murdered. The defector stated that he had personally photographed the dead and that archives of thousand more such photographs of other victims existed.

A former inmate of the prison who was detained for participating in a peaceful non-violent protest told Amnesty International that at Sednaya prisoners were forced to choose between dying themselves or killing one of their own relatives or friends. The former inmate also stated that in the first prison he was at, prisoners were also forced into cannibalism, but that prison was "heaven" compared to Sednaya Prison. According to the inmate, the other prison (Branch 215) was "to interrogate" (including through torture), but when that was done, you were moved to Sednaya "to die". 

Wide variety of inhumane torture practices are carried out in the prison; ranging from perpetual beatings, sexual assaults, decapitations, rapes, burnings to what are known as the "flying carpets". In 2017, the US State Department alleged that a crematorium had been built at the prison to dispose of the bodies of the executed, although Amnesty's investigation did not find evidence of this having happened.

About the Sednaya Prison
Located  north of the Syrian capital Damascus, Sednaya Military Prison is known for its torture of people and innocent civilians that started the revolution in 2011. It is designed for the purpose of quietly slaughtering innocent civilians, men, women, children and the elderly. Even children are born inside the prison due to the brutal rape of the women by the guards. Not only women are raped, children and men are also subject to rape and sexual assult. There are different social groups who are at risk. These can be groups of labourers, business people, students, bloggers, university professors, lawyers, doctors, activists defending the rights of minority groups, people helping their neighbours or journalists. Detainees may be either men, women or even children.

The prison consists of two buildings with a total of 10,000–20,000 detainees and is under the jurisdiction of the Minister of Defense while operated by the Military Police. Detainees have usually spent months or years in detention elsewhere before being transferred to Sednaya. It was not until after the 2011 crisis when this started to happen. The way in which detainees are being transferred to this facility has been internationally recognized and criticized, mainly by Amnesty International. The transfers usually take place after holding unfair trials at a secret military court. In interviews with Amnesty, prisoners described the trials as sham for lasting only one to three minutes. While some prisoners would be told they were being transferred to a civilian prison when they instead were to be executed, other detainees do not even get to see a judge.

Recognized unfair trials

The Syrian Mus’ab al-Hariri belonged to the banned organization, the Muslim Brotherhood, and lived in exile in Saudi Arabia until his return to Syria in 2002 with his mother. She worried that their return would cause problems for her son because of his political stand but the Syrian Embassy in Saudi Arabia had assured her that this would not happen. However, shortly after al-Hariri's return, he was sentenced by the Syrian Security forces on 24 July 2002. At the time of arrest, he was only 14 years old. Even though the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention announced al-Hariri's detention as arbitrary, the authorities took no step to amend his situation. The UN Working Group based its announcement on their assessment that he did not receive a fair trial. Four main issues that were raised were his young age when arrested, that he had been held in isolation for more than two years, reportedly tortured and that he was sentenced by the SSSC (Supreme State Security Court) in June 2005 to six years in prison despite no substantial evidence. All the SSSC knew was that al-Hariri belonged to the banned Muslim Brotherhood.

The Syrian Human Rights Committee reported in 2004 about people being arrested the same year because of political reasons. To offer the suspected individuals human rights defenders and lawyers was not self-evident and as in the case of Mus’ab al-Hariri, hundreds of prisoners remained in long detention without trial or following sentences enforced after unfair trials. It was also reported that no respect was given to the poor health condition of prisoners and that these were still held in rigorous conditions.

The 2008 Massacre

According to The Syrian Human Rights Committee, the military police changed all the locks of the prison cells on the night of 4 July 2008. On the day after a search operation was launched through all the prisons quarters, in which the security guards trampled on copies of the Quran. The act triggered fury among Muslim detainees who rushed to collect the Quran copies. The guards opened fire and killed nine of the prisoners. Among the nine killed prisoners, they were able to identify eight of them, those were: Zakaria Affash, Mohammed Mahareesh, Abdulbaqi Khattab, Ahmed Shalaq, Khalid Bilal, Mo’aid Al-Ali, Mohannad Al-Omar and Khader Alloush. Clashes have been reported after this incident where the total number of victims reached 25 detainees. However, the committee could not ascertain their identities.

Testimonies

These testimonies are collected from three different sources. Two documentaries and a series of articles.
The Black Box: The Death in Sednaya by Al Jazeera, The Road to Sednaya: We have Changed, Omar Abdullah by Orient News, and Sednaya Death speaks, Zaman Alwasl Newspaper.
According to many detainees, in 2005 Ali Kher Bek became the director of the prison and he was very strict and harsh with detainees. He worsened their life conditions by halting visits and cutting electricity on the prison for a long period of time.

Diab Serriya, a former detainee, had been accused of forming a youth opposition group. He was arrested in 2006 and released in 2011 after a general amnesty. “ We had the feeling that the prisoners would rebel in any moment because the living situation was unbearable.”  Diab said that on 26 March 2008, a fight broke between a prisoner and a security guard, which led to Ali Kher Bek's rage. On the next day he walked, with other security forces, through the prison shouting at the prisoners and insulting them. He visited all the dungeons of the prison. The security forces dragged prisoners in charge of all the prison's wards and punished them. Some detainees kept shouting “Allah Akbar” and banging on the metal doors. A rebellion broke out and the prison went out of control.

Serriya told Zaman Alwasel Newspaper that security forces used tear gas and opened fire in the air to intimidate prisoners, who most of them ran to the roof and started to burn blankets, plastic bags and wooden pieces, to send a message that the prison was in chaos and urgent helped was needed. When the security forces could not exert control over the prison, the government launched negotiations with the prisoners, through which it agreed on providing fair trials for detainees, allowing family visits again, enhancing the living conditions, increasing the daily breaks's time, improving the quality of beverage and drinks, providing a proper medical care, in addition to immediate change for the unfair treatment of the prisoners. This incident was known as “The first Rebellion” and lasted for one day.

After this incident the prison went into loose policy. The internal doors were left open all the time, prisoners started to defy the security forces, and lenient treatment was obvious.,. The effect of “the first rebellion” had lasted till 5 July 2008 when the director launched an offensive to discipline the prisoners. Many fights broke between the prisoners and the military police until prisoners overpowered them. In addition to exerting control over the whole prison, and retaining more than 1245 out of 1500 from military police. From the outer fence of the prison, security forces opened fire and killed the first group, which attempted to flee the prison due to the unbearable situations. The group was: Wael al-Khous, Zakaria Affash, Daham Jebran, Ahmed Shalaq, Mohammed Abbas, Hassan Al-Jaberie, Mohammed Eld Al-Ahmad, Khader Alloush, Abdulbaqi Khattab, Maen Majarish and Mo’aid Al-Ali. Fearing suffocation of the tear gas and the running from the bloody scenes inside the building, the prisoners dragged some of the hostages to the roof so they can communicate with the military forces outside and find a way out of the dilemma. However, the governmental forces opened fire and killed almost 30 military police hostages and some prisoners who were with them. In addition to 10 hostages were killed by the prisoners and 6 committed a suicide out of fear to be killed