For days, individuals have been stealing equipment from Sednaya prison without any official oversight from the ruling authorities or specialized organizations.
An Enab Baladi correspondent visited the prison on Saturday, December 28, and reported that several civilians, not wearing military uniforms and without weapons, were carrying simple hand tools for digging and extracting iron and copper.
These individuals are digging up the prison grounds, pulling out water pipes, and stealing iron from various construction sites, while some of them are also stealing fire extinguishers.
The correspondent spoke with these individuals, who responded to her inquiries with indifference and mockery, stating that they aimed to sell the iron and copper taken from the structure.
The prison is filling up with water leaking from the pipes due to their breaking and theft, while many documents have become soaked and are lying on the ground; these are official sealed documents mostly related to the kitchen section, containing names of individuals responsible for the section and records passing through it regarding food requests.
Among the documents are some medical prescriptions issued for detainees in the prison, mentioning their names, while many documents have also been burned in the vicinity of the prison.
There is no military or civilian body from the authorities protecting the prison, and on the contrary, the place is chaotic.
Documents burned in Sednaya prison – December 28, 2024 (Enab Baladi/Manal Shakhashiro)
Documents in Sednaya prison are submerged in water due to the theft of water pipes from the prison – December 28, 2024 (Enab Baladi/Manal Shakhashiro)
Looting phenomenon
The director of the Association of Detainees and Missing Persons of Sednaya Prison (ADMSP), Diab Serriya, stated that the looting of the prison began from the very first moments after its opening.
Part of the intruders into the prison was a “large gang” consisting of 17 individuals from the “shabiha” and thieves who were connected to the ousted regime; they infiltrated the prison and stole fuel, computer equipment, a quantity of ammunition, electrical wires, and copper, as well as some files and documents which they burned.
The “gang” then stopped stealing for days when the prison and its surroundings were crowded with the families of detainees who remained in the area for days, but they returned after the movement of people there decreased.
The looting that has occurred in recent days is reportedly larger, as these individuals are stealing doors and all iron from the prison.
The thefts targeting Sednaya prison – December 28, 2024 (Enab Baladi/Manal Shakhashiro)
Serriya explained that he had requested the Military Operations Administration to prevent these practices and to protect the prison from thefts, and they promised him that forces would be sent to protect the prison and close it last Sunday night, but it has not been confirmed whether they arrived by the time this report was published.
To assess the responsibility of the Military Operations Administration in protecting crime scenes, including Sednaya prison, Enab Baladi contacted the spokesperson for the Humanitarian Affairs Administration and asked about the measures they have taken in this regard, but no response was received by the time this report was issued.
The aftermath of the thefts targeting Sednaya prison – December 28, 2024 (Enab Baladi/Manal Shakhashiro)
After hours of the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime on December 8, filmed recordings spread from inside Sednaya prison and many other security branches, showing fighters and civilians wandering between shelves containing documents and reports that recorded the end of the lives of tens of thousands of Syrians, or that led to their arbitrary detention and inhumane treatment, also documenting the names of those responsible for that.
Documents are scattered on the ground, while others have been taken by individuals, either civilians or military personnel, and some of them may have been from key figures of the previous regime, leading to the loss or damage of security documents and reports, the extent of which is still unknown.
The prison is known as the “human slaughterhouse,” “death factory,” “grave,” “black hole,” and other names that survivors use to convey the scale of the tragedy they experienced inside the prison.
The phenomenon of looting has been prevalent since the first year of the revolution against the Syrian regime when forces loyal to the regime and allied local and foreign militias began stealing contents from homes and stores, especially furniture, electrical and electronic materials, in every area they entered.
In an interview with the ousted regime’s president, Bashar al-Assad, in late 2016, he admitted that the “Syrian army” committed numerous violations in this regard, especially in Homs and its countryside, the Damascus countryside, and Hauran, and lastly Aleppo.
The aftermath of the thefts targeting Sednaya prison – December 28, 2024 (Enab Baladi/Manal Shakhashiro)
Scattered documents inside Sednaya prison in the absence of authority protection – December 28, 2024 (Enab Baladi/Manal Shakhashiro)
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