Syrians fear the return of Assad's prisons as death of young detainee sparks anger

The mountain town of Al-Haffah in northwestern Syria's Lattakia governorate was engulfed in grief and anger last week amid the funeral of 29-year-old Mohammad Ghamira, a man who died in hospital after security officers allegedly beat him while in detention, an incident that has stirred traumatic memories of the former regime’s worst abuses.

Immediately upon his arrest over a financial dispute, Ghamira's family informed the police that he suffered from haemophilia, requiring special care and the strict avoidance of any physical trauma, as his blood lacked the ability to clot.

The family's warnings were ignored. After three days in detention, the young man's health deteriorated rapidly. Despite being rushed to hospital after his release, he died a week later.

As news of Ghamira's deteriorating condition spread, the Internal Security Command in Lattakia initiated an investigation.

Following the announcement of his death, authorities detained seven individuals who were present at the Al-Haffah police station holding cell during his detention. 

On the evening of Sunday, August 16, the Minister of Interior issued an administrative order forming a committee to investigate the circumstances surrounding his death, mandating a report within 72 hours.

On Thursday, August 20, the committee announced its findings, confirming that an interrogator had slapped Ghamira on the neck. 

Consequently, interrogator Ahmad Jawad was referred to the public prosecution in Lattakia, while the Ministry of Interior's disciplinary department was tasked with expanding its investigation into Captain Ahmad Shaker Al-Masri and interrogator Omar Youssef.

The incident has triggered widespread outrage among Syrians, many of whom see it as reminiscent of the Assad era, when police stations and detention centres were sites of unchecked violence and murder.

Bashar al-Assad was overthrown in December 2024, ending 54 years of the Assad family's rule that was marked by absolute control over politics and civic life and widespread human rights violations.

Questions remain over whether the new administration, led by former militant leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, will usher in genuine reform.

Syria's memories of torture

"For Syrians, prison is not merely a penal institution; it is tied to a deeply painful national memory of arbitrary detention, torture, forced disappearance, and death," said Almoutassim Al Kilani, a prominent Syrian human rights lawyer and legal expert specialising in international criminal law and transitional justice.

"Hearing news of a detainee being tortured or dying in a security facility after being released is not seen as an ordinary criminal incident, but as an alarm that touches the very meaning of liberation," Al Kilani added. 

Ezzedine Ezzedine, a lawyer who has worked for years on detainee files documenting the abuses and crimes committed in Bashar al-Assad's prisons, called it  "a massive shock" for him or any human rights lawyer who monitored the violations of the previous regime.

"We considered that the absolute minimum achievement of the regime's fall was the eradication of forced disappearance and torture," he said.

Ezzedine notes that his frustration, and that of other Syrians, stems from the persistence of violence in prisons and the fear that it could evolve from isolated incidents caused by inexperience into a general policy.

"We hope we are wrong," he adds. His fears are compounded by the lack of concrete legal measures to prevent such violations. 

Forming investigative committees is insufficient, he said, because they lack judicial authority and are merely internal bodies formed by the Ministry of Interior. 

"The idea of a committee is good, but the issue cannot be resolved by committees alone. Is it reasonable to form a committee every time a violation occurs? The solution lies in implementing radical procedures, applying the Code of Criminal Procedure, and empowering the law to take its true, independent role."

A legacy of fear

In the Syrian consciousness, prisons evoke deep fears and tragic stories. The mere thought of entering a police station is terrifying, let alone a political detention centre.

While mass detention and mistreatment in prison were not common during the period of national rule following the French mandate, from 1946 to 1963, torture emerged as a systemic tool of control when the Baath Party seized power. 

The rise of Hafez al-Assad, who took over in 1970, marked a brutal turning point. In the 1980s, the regime filled prisons with thousands of political opponents, using torture as the primary means of subjugating detainees and quashing the opposition base.

From this point, and continuing under his son, Bashar al-Assad, Syria was ruled by an authoritarian security apparatus that infiltrated every aspect of the state and society.

It spread fear and silenced dissent, creating a profound lack of trust, where everyone felt monitored and suspected their neighbours might be informants, said civil and political activist Youssef Al-Banni. 

"After the Syrian people suffered for 40 years under the father and 14 years under the son, sacrificing blood, enduring oppression and displacement, every Syrian has the right to react to any act of violence by security forces," said Al-Banni.

"This requires a courageous and clear stance on the necessity of investigation, follow-up, and holding those involved accountable, regardless of their rank or justification. Silence on such violations undermines the very goals for which the nation revolted."

Al Kilani agrees that the Assad legacy is heavy and changing it takes time. "Liberation does not mean violations will automatically disappear, because changing the authorities is much faster than changing institutional culture and power dynamics," he says.

"But the hallmark of the new phase must be how the state handles a violation. Under the previous regime, torture was part of a vast system that protected perpetrators and hid victims. After liberation, any assault must be treated as a criminal and exceptional act, to be exposed, investigated, and penalised."

Civil society is now stepping in to fulfil this monitoring role.

Following Ghamira's death, activists organised a protest in Aleppo, while another group planned a similar demonstration in Damascus, which was later postponed. 

Journalist and activist Fadi Zeidan, one of the organisers of the postponed Damascus protest, explains that the organisers include independent activists and former detainees, collaborating with civil society and human rights representatives.

While the public was deeply shocked by the incident, Zeidan noted intense societal polarisation.

Some voices called for boycotting the protest, fearing it would be exploited by remnants of the former regime to attack the new government.

"Despite this, we are the children of the 2011 revolution, and we believe that safeguarding the path of freedom and dignity requires us not to remain silent about any violation, regardless of who committed it," Zeidan says.

The Damascus protest was postponed after political figures, parliamentarians, and Ministry of Information officials reached out to request time to address the protesters' demands.

The government was also concerned that the issue of deaths under torture could be exploited politically or internationally to undermine stability.

Accounts of abuse

But Ghamira's story is not an isolated incident.

In July of last year, a young man named Youssef Al-Labad was arrested after a verbal altercation with public security personnel at the Umayyad Mosque. He was transferred to the Hamidiyeh prison, run by Internal Security, where he died under mysterious circumstances. 

His body was returned to his family bearing clear signs of torture.

Al-Labad had been a soldier in the Syrian regime's army before defecting at the start of the 2011 revolution to join the Free Syrian Army. He later sought asylum in Germany with his family, only to be killed two days after deciding to return to Syria.

Another case is that of activist Laith Al-Zoubi, who was arrested at his home on September 14, 2025, and released a week later. Now back in Syria, Al-Zoubi explains that while his initial arrest was non-violent, he was beaten and insulted upon arriving at the Sahnaya police station in rural Damascus after asking why he was detained. He was thrown into solitary confinement for seven days. 

Despite informing them that he suffered from partial epilepsy and bipolar disorder and urgently needed his medication, he was denied medical care or visits from his family or lawyer. On the seventh day, he was forced to sign a document without reading it.

"I just wanted to get out and travel, and I will never return as long as this is how things are," he told The New Arab.

"It is not just my case. There are several people like me who were arbitrarily arrested and signed pledges, and I don't think I am the only one who was tortured. To this day, I do not know why I was arrested. They never informed me of the charges or interrogated me."

Calls for justice

Human rights organisations have documented arbitrary arrests, mistreatment, torture, and deaths in custody in post-Assad prisons.

Human Rights Watch's 2026 World Report cited accounts of such abuses in facilities run by transitional authorities, and the Syrian Network for Human Rights confirmed that these practices did not completely cease after the regime's fall. 

Documented abuses like these, said Al Kilani, indicate that prisons remain in a dangerous transitional phase.

Legally, Syrian legislation contains provisions protecting detainees, but the problem often lies in enforcement and in the disregard for these provisions. 

Ezzedine points out that the Anti-Torture Law No. 16 of 2022 explicitly penalises violence against detainees. Furthermore, the Code of Criminal Procedure guarantees a fair trial, bans violence against detainees, and upholds the presumption of innocence.

He notes that the Constitutional Declaration nullified all previous laws that granted immunity to security personnel and that violated international human rights treaties, which should serve as safeguards for detainees.

To ensure these laws are applied, Al Kilani stressed the need for a clear political and legal message that torture, beatings, insults, and the denial of medical treatment are crimes, not minor administrative errors.

He proposes closing all secret or unregistered detention centres, creating a unified national registry of detainees, and installing cameras in detention corridors. 

Crucially, he suggests that medical services in prisons should fall under the technical and administrative jurisdiction of the Ministry of Health, rather than the Ministry of Interior, thereby allowing doctors to document injuries and order hospital transfers without pressure from security.

He also calls for permanent, qualified paramedics and binding protocols for critical conditions like haemophilia, diabetes, epilepsy, and heart disease.

These recommendations align with the demands of the postponed Damascus protest.

According to Zeidan, their sit-in was delayed in the hope that their demands would be met. These demands emphasise the strict criminalisation of torture, truth and accountability, the protection of detainees' rights, security sector reform, and human rights training for security personnel to ensure these practices do not return.

"For us in civil society, our role is to monitor the authorities' performance and not allow the legitimisation or justification of any violation under any pretext," said Zeidan.

"We will continue to apply pressure through all legislative and civil means, and we are currently preparing for field and legal mobilisation coinciding with the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances on August 30 to send a message that human dignity is a red line and the Syrian people will not be humiliated."

Mawada Bahah is an independent Syrian journalist with bylines in local, regional and international outlets

This article is published in collaboration with Egab