18 years of torture: Lebanese survivor exposes horrors of Assad regime prisons

By Muhammed Emin Canik

BEIRUT (AA) - A Lebanese man who endured 18 years in prisons under Syria's fallen Assad regime described how the severity of torture led people to accept accusations against them without even reading the charges.

Muaz Merab from Tripoli was the father of a five-year-old son and a six-year-old daughter when he was detained in Syria in 2006. Today, he is a grandfather.

Having spent more than a third of his life in Syrian dungeons, he shared his harrowing story of survival during those 18 years with Anadolu.

Merab, 50, said that he was detained in 2006 in Douma, a district in Damascus, by Assad regime forces while returning to Lebanon from Iraq, where he had been working in the press sector during the US invasion of Iraq.

He detailed the various torture methods used by guards and interrogators, stating: “Beatings, forced nudity, intimidation, and humiliation were some of the tactics they employed.”

“One of the tools they used to beat us was electric cables. With every blow, our flesh tore, and our bodies bled,” he recalled, lamenting: “Among the methods of torture was the 'wheel method.'”

“A person’s hands and feet were tied, and they were wedged into a wheel before being beaten," he added.

Calling the well-documented torture methods in Assad regime prisons entirely “accurate,” Merab stated that the intensity of torture forced detainees to accept any charges leveled against them.

- ‘Severity of torture left detainees' skin flayed’

Merab was held in different prisons and spent five years in the notorious Sednaya Prison near Damascus, known as the "slaughterhouse," before being transferred to the infamous Adra Prison in 2011.

Speaking about Sednaya, where prisoners died daily due to severe torture, Merab remarked: “The severity of torture flayed the skin off detainees.”

“Detainees were forced to leave fingerprints on documents containing accusations and so-called confessions without seeing them, their hands tied behind their backs,” he explained, adding: “Those who refused sometimes had their fingers cut off.”

Merab also described the appalling living conditions, revealing that 60 people were crammed into a seven-meter room, and food consisted of small amounts of bread and bulgur.

Highlighting the atrocities committed in Assad regime prisons, he said: “There was a convicted Shabiha (pro-regime militia member) who would kill one or two people to secure his food rations, often targeting the sick and weak.”

- Lebanese victims of forced disappearances in Syrian prisons

During Syria's 29-year occupation of Lebanon between 1976 and 2005, many Lebanese individuals were detained or forcibly disappeared on charges of opposing the Syrian occupation or collaborating with groups considered enemies of the Assad regime.

According to the Beirut-based "Association of Lebanese Political Prisoners in Syrian Prisons," an estimated 622 Lebanese citizens were forcibly disappeared in Syrian prisons.

On Dec.10, Lebanese Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi announced the return of nine Lebanese individuals who had been freed from Assad regime prisons.

- Sednaya: A center of atrocities

Reports from international organizations describe Sednaya Military Prison, located 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) from Damascus, as a hub of systematic atrocities since the uprising began in March 2011.

Initially used to detain peaceful protesters, Sednaya became notorious for holding thousands of regime opponents in degrading conditions.

According to these reports, detainees were subjected to relentless torture, starvation, and deliberate deprivation of basic necessities, including water, medicine, and medical care.

The systematic nature of these abuses highlights the regime’s calculated efforts to silence dissent and crush opposition.

With the reopening of the Caesar Files, renewed attention is being directed toward the Assad regime’s crimes, offering the victims a glimmer of hope for justice and accountability.

*Writing by Merve Berker