White Helmets ask Russia to pressure Assad into providing secret jail maps

A man moves a body at Al-Mujtahid Hospital, Damascus. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, rescue teams have found the bodies of 15 people in secret cells in Sednaya prison. (EPA Images pic)

BEIRUT: Syria’s White Helmet rescuers on Tuesday called on Russia to pressure former president Bashar al-Assad into providing maps of secret jails and lists of detainees as they race against time to release prisoners.

The rescuers said they “sent a request to the United Nations through an international mediator to demand that Russia pressure… Assad into handing over maps of the locations of secret prisons, and lists of the names of detainees, so that we can reach them as soon as possible,” the group said in a statement.

Since Islamist rebels launched a lightning offensive last month, seizing power and forcing Assad to flee, the rescuers have toiled to free thousands of detainees from the government’s notorious prison system.

Since the start of the conflict, Assad’s government had been accused of human rights abuses including torture, rape and summary executions.

Since the 2011 uprising that sparked the war, more than 100,000 people have died in Syrian prisons, often under torture, according a 2022 estimate from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

After Assad’s overthrow, thousands flocked to Sednaya prison – a grim symbol of some of the worst atrocities committed under his rule – hoping to find loved ones who disappeared in government jails.

The UK-based war monitor also said about 30,000 people had been detained at Sednaya, where detainees endured some of the worst torture, with only 6,000 released.

Earlier on Tuesday, the White Helmets said they were looking for “hidden underground cells”, before announcing later in the day the end of search operations at Sednaya without finding further detainees.

Many families remain convinced some prisoners have been kept in secret underground dungeons.

Sednaya is believed to have several underground levels sealed behind airtight gates.

Most of the detainees who had not been released were officially considered missing, with their death certificates rarely reaching their families unless exorbitant bribes were paid.

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