MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
First, though, we begin in Syria. Under the rule of former President Bashar al-Assad, Sednaya prison was full of people detained by the regime. It's a vast jail complex in the Syrian capital, Damascus, and was known as a place where Syrians were disappeared without trial. Rights groups have documented torture and mass executions happened there. Now it's packed with families of prisoners searching for clues about what may have happened to their loved ones. NPR's Ruth Sherlock and producer Jawad Rizkallah join Syrians as they search the complex. And a warning - this story contains the sounds of gunfire.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOTOR RUNNING)
RUTH SHERLOCK, BYLINE: Hundreds of people walk up the snaking dirt paths that lead up the hill to Sednaya prison. Many are immaculately dressed, as if they hope that today they might finally meet their loved one that disappeared here.
NADER SABSABI: (Speaking Arabic).
SHERLOCK: Nader Sabsabi says his brother was detained in 2012. He searches a handwritten ledger he's found with names of the detainees for clues.
SABSABI: (Speaking Arabic).
SHERLOCK: "My brother went out of the house to buy bread. He was stopped at a checkpoint, and that's all we know."
Sabsabi has made the hourslong journey from his home city of Daraa to here every day since the regime fell to search. Most prisoners were released by opposition rebels in the hours after the regime collapsed, but people believe there could be more cells hidden underground, where others might be alive.
(SOUNDBITE OF GUNFIRE)
SHERLOCK: The commotion - the shooting in the air and people running towards the prisoners - because we understand they've managed to open a new door.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOOR BANGING)
SHERLOCK: OK, we're inside the courtyard of the prison.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOOR BANGING)
SHERLOCK: And they've just closed the doors behind us 'cause they want to stop the crowds. They believe there's - they've found something, and they need silence. They need calm to try to hear the voices of the prisoners.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Shouting in Arabic).
SHERLOCK: A rebel shouts for quiet, but it's too chaotic, with hundreds of people combing the jail.
(SOUNDBITE OF METAL PIPE BANGING ON FLOOR)
SHERLOCK: Some hack at the concrete floor with metal pipes - a desperate hope that someone could be underneath. Anything seems possible in this place that Syrians have known for so long as a center of torture, where prisoners were hung by ropes, beaten, starved.
ISRAA KOUKEH: (Speaking Arabic).
SHERLOCK: Israa Koukeh says Sednaya is worse than anyone can imagine - a slaughterhouse, she says. Her brother was in here for years. She heard he'd been killed but never received a death certificate. So all this time, she's kept a shred of hope.
KOUKEH: (Speaking Arabic).
SHERLOCK: The end of the Assad regime has brought us unbelievable happiness, but it's also reopened old wounds.
AYSSA HUSSEINI: (Speaking Arabic).
SHERLOCK: (Speaking Arabic).
HUSSEINI: (Speaking Arabic).
SHERLOCK: (Speaking Arabic).
Outside this section of the prison, we meet Ayssa Husseini. He's searching for his three cousins and asks us what we've seen inside.
HUSSEINI: (Speaking Arabic).
SHERLOCK: The Assad regime didn't usually tell families where the detained were held or even if they were still alive. Husseini searched every prison in the capital, every institution. It's too much.
HUSSEINI: (Speaking Arabic, crying).
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Non-English language spoken).
HUSSEINI: (Crying).
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Non-English language spoken).
SHERLOCK: Some 100,000 Syrians disappeared into jails like these, say rights groups. It's getting dark, and rescuers end their search in Sednaya. There are no more secret cells, no more hope for families like Husseini.
As we leave, we meet Samer Haider. He's come with his four young children.
SAMER HAIDER: (Speaking Arabic).
SHERLOCK: "It's so they remember the bloody legacy of the Assad regime," he says, "so that we never forget."
Ruth Sherlock, NPR News, Sednaya Prison. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
