Syrians Awaiting Execution Saved, Assad's Hellish Prisons Are Liberated [View all]
Newsweek
By Amir Daftari
Freelance News Reporter
Published Dec 09, 2024 at 12:20 PM EST
In a watershed moment for Syria, rebels have stormed the regime's notorious prisons, freeing thousands of detainees in a move that is another signal of the end of Bashar al-Assad's grip on power.
Among those freed was 63-year-old writer Bashar Barhoum, who described his release as a miraculous reprieve from imminent execution.
"I haven't seen the sun until today," Barhoum said after walking freely through Damascus for the first time in months. Scheduled for execution after seven months in detention, Barhoum found his life unexpectedly spared as the insurgents overran the prison
Videos circulated online showed jubilant former detainees, some barefoot and wearing tattered clothing, running through the streets in celebration. In one clip, a man exclaims with joy upon learning that the government had fallen.
https://www.newsweek.com/syrian-prisons-are-liberated-assad-regime-ends-1997795
Reports indicate about 157,634 Syrians were arrested between March 2011 and August 2024.
Of this number, 5,274 were children and 10,221 women.
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