Ali Abu Dahan, a Lebanese citizen and former detainee of the al-Assad regime, confirmed that 622 Lebanese detainees documented by the Lebanese government and the Syrian regime are still detained and hidden in the al-Assad prisons. Abu Dahan indicated that the al-Assad regime refuses to release them, return them to Lebanon, reveal anything regarding their fate, or even talk about the issue although the civil war in Lebanon ended long ago and many people are demanding their release.
Abu Dahan, who spent eight years in Sadnaya prison and five years in Palmyra prison, started the ‘Association for Lebanese Detainees in Syrian Prisons’ in 2009. Speaking to Zaman al-Wasl, he explained that he started the association with the aim of monitoring this issue at the local, Arab and international levels. The Association documented the names of 197 Lebanese detainees in the al-Assad prisons, but there are many more as the Lebanese government refused to hand over the full list of all the names.
Abu Dahan previously published a book entitled, “Returning from Hell” to describe the torture and violence he suffered in Palmyra prison. His experience in the prison also prompted him and several other former detainees to perform in the film ‘Palmyra’ which was recently released.
Abu Dahan who was released in 2000 said, the Association obtained four documents from the National Council for Truth, Justice and Reconciliation in Syria which confirm the presence of Lebanese detainees in the al-Assad regime prisons. He insisted that the Syrian regime continuously denied that these detainees were imprisoned in Syria.
-Intelligence Lists-
Abu Dahan said that two of the documents are orders issued by the Military Intelligence Division dictating that certain Lebanese prisoners be moved from the prison they were held in at the time. The other two documents were issued by the military medical services administration indicating tests and checkups conducted for some of the detainees in al-Mezzeh military prison in the early 1990s. Here we will reveal more of the details of the documents.
The first document is signed by General Ali Dawab, the former head of Military Intelligence Division, and dated April 10, 1996. Dawab orders that Mr. Boutros Khawand be moved to Palmyra prison. Boutros Khawand was kidnapped by members of Hezbollah in September 1992 and handed over to the Syrian regime in October 02, 1992.
According to the Council information, Khawand was handed to the Air Force Intelligence about one year after he was transferred to Syria. While with the Air Force Intelligence, he was moved to the Khan Abu al-Shamat detention center, in north eastern Damascus, subordinate to the Air Force Intelligence.
It must be mentioned that Karim Pakradouni, the head of the Lebanese Phalanges Party (Kataeb), denied that Boutros Khawand was detained in Syrian prisons. He launched a vicious media campaign against the Syrian journalist and opposition figure Nizar Nayouf when Nayouf handed Cardinal Nasrallah Boutros Safar, a list of 33 Lebanese detainees held in Syrian prisons during an international journalistic symposium held by the Cardinal in Paris in October 2003.
Another document signed by General Dawab is an order dated September 11, 1993 stating that the following Lebanese detainees will be transferred to Palmyra Military Prison: Albert Sharafan, Suleiman Abu Khalil, Shamil Kenaan, Adel Diyab, and Antwan Mouzhir.
The third document was issued by the 601 hospital (Mezzeh Military Hospital) on December 21, 1991 and it is a request for an x-ray for the patient George Halwan. The specialist physician had written the following note on the request, “weak degenerative changes in the cervical vertebra without explicit extinction are observed.” George Halwan is one of the Lebanese Army officers who were arrested by the Syrian Army in 1990.
The fourth document was also issued by the 601 hospital (Mezzah Military Hospital) on November 14, 1991. The document concerns blood and urine tests for a patient Antwan Zakhour. Zakhour was one of the Lebanese army men arrested by the regime army in 1990, but his rank is unknown.
Abu Dahan concluded his presentation of the documents by asking that all Syrian detainees who were released during the reign of Hafez or Bashar al-Assad come forward and reveal any information they may have which may help the Association and the families of the missing to know the fate of the Lebanese detainees held in the al-Assad regime prisons.
-Hell of Sednaya Prison-
In a recent report, Amnesty International stated that the al-Assad regime conducted around 13,000 mass and secret executions in Sednaya prison since the start of the conflict until 2015. The organization depended on the testimonies of former prison guards, officials, judges and international experts. Amnesty International considers these practices war practices and crimes against humanity. The organization warned that the regime practices are ongoing.
The report entitled, “Human Slaughter House: Mass Hanging and Extermination in Sednaya Prison” stated that, “between 2011-2015, every week and at times twice a week, a group of prisoners reaching up to 50 prisoners were taken out of their prison cells and hung.” The report explained that during those five years, “13,000 people were secretly hung in Sednaya prison, most of them civilians who are believed to be oppose the government
