FINALLY FREE
Moment TV crew discovers Syrian prisoner who didn’t realise Assad had been toppled as he says ‘oh God, there’s light’
Watch the moment the prisoner emerges after three months locked in a cell without windows
THIS is the incredible moment a TV crew finds a Syrian prisoner who didn't know tyrant Bashar Al-Assad had been overthrown.
Thousands of freed prisoners returned to their families over the weekend after Assad's brutal regime crumbled - but many are still said to be hidden inside secret underground cells.
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Ordinary Syrians continued to celebrate the end of Assad, whose family’s 53-year dynasty was brought down in a 12-day offensive.
In the aftermath, CNN reporter Clarissa Ward entered one of Assad's infamous prisons on the hunt for an American journalist.
In the footage, her team suddenly stumbles upon a cell that is still sealed shut.
After the lock gets shot off, Ward and a Syrian rebel fighter enter the cell - with the reporter pointing out a blanket that had moved.
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She asks if anyone is there, to which a terrified man sits up with his arms raised.
He's heard pleading: "I'm a civilian. I'm a civilian."
Once he realises he's not in any danger, the prisoner tells Ward he has been held in the cell without windows for three months.
He is seen clutching her arm with both hands for support as he is taken out of the prison, into the daylight.
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As he is brought outside, the freed prisoner looks up at the sky, takes deep breaths and exclaims: "Oh God, there is light."
The grateful man kisses both the reporter and the rebel as they sit him down.
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He asks Ward to stay with him and begins sharing his story.
The prisoner said: "For three months, I didn't know anything about my family.
"I didn't hear anything about my children."
The rebel then looks to reassure the visibly scarred prisoner, telling him that there is "no more army, no more prisons, no more checkpoints" before insisting "Syria is free".
Still blown away by the news, the prisoner kisses the rebel again and says how twisted officers from Assad's intelligence service took him from his home to interrogate him about his phone.
He explained: "They brought me here to Damascus, they asked me about names of terrorists."
The freed prisoner goes on to describe how he was beaten as an inmate.
As a paramedic shows up, the man appears to fully register his freedom, begins to shake and looks close to crying.
A man tries to reassure him by saying "everything is okay" and that "the Red Crescent is coming to help you".
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He added: "You are safe, don't be afraid anymore. Everything you are afraid of is gone."
The freed prisoner looks to be scared again as he is led inside a vehicle, but he explained: "Every car I got into, they blindfolded me."
One of the biggest rebel operations after overthrowing Assad saw fighters liberate the harrowing Sednaya Military Prison - nicknamed the Human Slaughterhouse.
Haunting images from Sednaya show massive piles of clothes and shoes hidden away in a secret compartment.
Horrific footage also revealed piles of dead bodies in the dungeons of the hellhole site.
The bodies were taken to Al-Mujtahid Hospital as teams carried out an investigation into the secret areas of the prison.
ASSAD'S DENIAL
Tyrant Assad previously denied killing thousands of detainees at Sednaya.
He also denied using a secret crematorium to dispose of their remains in 2017.
Despite the claims, so-called "Caesar" files, which was a collection of over 55,000 photographs, was smuggled out of Syria in 2013 by a former military police photographer.
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These images documented unspeakable torture and deaths of over 11,000 prisoners in Syrian government custody between March 2011 and August 2013.
RAPE, TORTURE AND DEATH
Some held at Sednaya say they were raped, and in some cases, forced to rape other inmates.
Floors of cells were coated in blood from tortured prisoners, according to a 2017 Amnesty report, with the bodies of dead inmates collected like rubbish at 9am each morning by guards.
Detainees were also made to follow horrific rules while being deprived basic necessities like food, water and medicine.
When food would be delivered it would often be cruelly scattered across cell floors by guards with a mixture of blood and dirt.
A human iron press was even discovered that was allegedly used to crush prisoners to death in Sednaya.
Rebels also found dozens of red rope nooses used for mass hangings in an execution room.
Other disturbing accounts say the mass hangings occurred once or twice a week on a Monday and Wednesday - chillingly in the middle of the night.
Human Rights Watch conducted over 200 interviews of detainees who said they were all tortured.
One 31-year-old man, who was detained in the Idlib area in June 2012, says he was made to undress and tortured using various heinous techniques.
He said: "'They started squeezing my fingers with pliers. They put staples in my fingers, chest and ears.
"I was only allowed to take them out if I spoke. The staples in the ears were the most painful.
"They used two wires hooked up to a car battery to give me electric shocks. They used electric stun-guns on my genitals twice.
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"I thought I would never see my family again. They tortured me like this three times over three days."
The unbelievable practices, which human rights groups say amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, were authorised at the highest level of the Syrian government under Assad.
What is Sednaya Prison?
By Annabel Bate, Foreign News Reporter
SEDNAYA Prison - otherwise known as the Human Slaughterhouse - was a military prison near Damascus, Syria.
Operated by the government of Syrian Arab Republic, the hellhole prison was used to hold thousands of inmates that were civilian detainees, anti-government rebels and political prisoners.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) estimated in January 2021 that an overwhelming 30,000 detainees were horrifically executed under the Assad regime in Sednaya.
Guards would use torture as a killing technique, as well as have mass executions.
Some held at the horrific prison of Sednaya say they were raped, and in some cases, forced to rape other inmates.
A regular form of punishment was some kind of torture and sever beatings from guards, it's claimed, which led to individuals suffering life-changing damage like disabilities or death.
Floors of cells were coated in blood and pus from tortured prisoners, according to a 2017 Amnesty report, with the bodies of dead prisoners collected like rubbish at 9am each morning by guards.
Detainees were also forced to follow horrific rules as they were forced as they were deprived the basic necessities of food, water and medicine.
When food would be delivered it would often be cruelly scattered across cell floors by guards with a mixture of blood and dirt.
Other disturbing accounts say the mass hangings occurred once or twice a week on a Monday and Wednesday - chillingly in the middle of the night.
The unbelievable practices, which human rights groups say amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, were authorised at the highest level of the Syrian government under Assad.
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