December 22, (Reuters) – The moment opposition factions opened the doors of Bashar al-Assad’s horrific prisons, the first wave of arrests in the new Syria began.
While Syrians stormed the former regime’s detention centers last December searching for loved ones who had disappeared under Assad’s rule, thousands of conscripts and officers of the Syrian army, who had abandoned their military posts, fell into the hands of the opposition factions that toppled the regime.
The second wave came in mid-winter: The new authorities arrested hundreds from the Alawite sect, to which the Assad family belongs, from various parts of Syria, most of them men. The pace of these arrests escalated after a brief uprising in the coastal region in March, which resulted in the deaths of dozens of security forces, leading to retaliatory acts that killed nearly 1,500 Alawites. These arrests continue to this day.
In the summer, another wave of mass arrests began, this time in the south among the Druze minority. This followed the killing of hundreds in sectarian violence, amid accusations that government forces carried out field executions and other violations.
The country witnessed other arrests targeting various sects under the pretext of maintaining security: a large number of people, many from Syria’s Sunni majority, accused of unspecified connections to the Assad regime; human rights activists; Christians who say they were extorted for information or money; and Shiites arrested at checkpoints on accusations of links to Iran or Lebanon’s Hezbollah group.
A Reuters investigation found that some prisons and detention centers that held tens of thousands of detainees during Assad’s rule are now packed with Syrians held by security forces under President Ahmed al-Shara without formal charges.
Reuters compiled the names of at least 829 people arrested for security reasons since Assad’s fall a year ago, based on interviews with former detainees and family members of detainees. To reach this number, Reuters also reviewed incomplete lists of detainee names prepared by individuals who organized family visits to seven detention centers.
Interviews, detainee lists, and multiple accounts of overcrowding in prisons and detention centers indicate that the number of detainees held for security reasons is far higher than the number Reuters was able to compile.
Dozens of interviews reveal that some of the violations Syrians hoped would end with Assad’s fall have returned at the hands of men working for the interim government: arbitrary arrests without charges or official paperwork; the use of some of the same torture methods and abuses; plus deaths in custody that go unrecorded. Some detainees also fell victim to extortion, according to interviews with 14 families. Reuters reviewed correspondence from five of these families with individuals claiming to be prison guards or intermediaries demanding money for the release of a relative.
In December 2024, Shara pledged to close the “notorious prisons” established by the ousted dictator. But the Reuters investigation found that at least 28 prisons and detention centers from the Assad era resumed operations over the past year.
The Syrian Ministry of Information, in response to questions from Reuters about the report’s findings, said the need to bring those implicated in violations during the Assad era to justice explains many of the arrests and the reopening of some detention centers.
The ministry stated: “The numbers of those implicated in crimes and violations in Syria during the former regime are very large given the scale of the violations that occurred. There are past crimes and there is involvement in new violations and threats to security and stability by those linked to the regime. In addition to other crimes, some of which are criminal in nature.”
The government said the number of Syrians released over the past year exceeds the number currently detained, but did not provide specific figures.
The detention facilities identified by the Reuters investigation include main prisons and large detention centers located within massive complexes formerly run by Assad’s intelligence apparatus, as well as smaller detention centers at checkpoints and police stations.
Detainees in these facilities lack legal recourse, and at least 80 families reported losing contact with their relatives for many months.
The level of access allowed to lawyers and family members to visit detainees varies from one facility to another. Reuters found that publicly charging security detainees is rare, unlike those accused of criminal offenses.
Reuters also found that security detainees are transferred to prisons that were formerly under opposition control, including those led by President Shara in his former stronghold in Idlib province in the north. These detainees joined prisoners held there since the years of the civil war for security reasons, according to testimonies from about 12 former prisoners.
Across Syria, former detainees and families of current detainees told Reuters in interviews about inhumane conditions they or their relatives endured during detention, including severe overcrowding, lack of food, and the spread of skin diseases due to a lack of soap.
Both security detainees and those accused of ordinary crimes confirmed that mistreatment and neglect are rampant in the detention centers where they were held.
Forty people interviewed by Reuters, who were either former detainees or from detainees’ families, described experiencing abuse and sometimes torture, particularly in unofficial detention centers.
Reuters documented the deaths of at least 11 people while in detention, including three cases where families said they only learned of their sons’ deaths after they were buried.
In total, Reuters interviewed more than 140 Syrians for this report, including former detainees, relatives, lawyers, and human rights activists. Reuters also reviewed correspondence between prison guards and detainees’ families, in addition to photos documenting alleged torture.
Reuters was unable to independently verify some details of the accounts from detainees and their families. However, the accounts of those interviewed by Reuters were consistent in their details, including the described mistreatment in detention places.
In its statement, the Syrian government said: “In the post-Assad phase, we need to rehabilitate the legal, judicial, and security institutions,” adding, “And here, as a natural and inevitable result of this difficult reality, some gaps occur leading to negative outcomes that sometimes contravene policies.”
The government said it had imposed disciplinary measures on 84 security force members for extortion incidents related to detainees and 75 members for acts of violence.
Since January, the Syrian Interior Ministry has announced the arrest of more than 100 people on charges related to alleged violations during the Assad era. Reuters’ count does not include these individuals whose names were disclosed and who face specific charges.
The conditions described in the prisons and detention centers do not reach the level of brutality of Assad’s rule. The ousted dictator oversaw the disappearance of over 100,000 Syrians during the civil war. Mass graves created by the regime to hide the bodies of the killed are still being discovered to this day.
According to UN estimates in 2022, over 300,000 Syrian civilians were killed during the war. Hafez al-Assad, Bashar’s father, ruled Syria with an iron fist no less brutal, and both oversaw a regime notorious for widespread torture, extortion, and extrajudicial killings.
However, human rights defenders say the mass arrests and enforced disappearances cast a shadow over Shara’s government, which came to power promising to lead Syria out of more than five decades of Assad family rule. The new leadership is struggling to fulfill those promises, as Reuters has documented in a series of reports this year.
Efforts to rebuild the country extend beyond Syria’s borders. The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump considers Shara an ally in achieving regional stability and efforts to curb the extremist Islamic State group.
A senior U.S. administration official, responding to a question about prison conditions in this report, said Trump is “committed to supporting Syria’s stability and unity and for it to live in internal peace and peace with its neighbors.”
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights stated in a statement on December 5 that it is receiving “horrific accounts of summary executions, arbitrary killing, and abductions” since Assad’s fall.
Seemin Khaythan, a spokesperson for the Commissioner, told Reuters that the office is unable to compile a comprehensive record of security detention cases. He added, “It remains difficult for us to accurately determine the number of individuals detained or the number released, or cases that may be classified as enforced disappearance… And sometimes, families may hesitate to provide information for fear of repercussions.”
On November 25, thousands of Alawites protested in the coastal regions overlooking the Mediterranean against sectarian attacks and demanding the release of members of their sect who disappeared after arrest. These were among the largest protests since Assad’s fall.
The notorious Saydnaya prison in Damascus, the worst in reputation during Assad’s rule as a center for torture, disappearance, and death, was among many prisons closed immediately after the dictator’s fall. It remains empty to this day, one of several detention centers the new government announced it closed.
But Reuters found that two locations in Damascus that the government announced were closed—the Mezzeh Military Airport prison and the al-Khatib branch prison—resumed operations over the past year.
Amer Matar, a journalist and filmmaker focusing on human rights issues, said he was detained under Assad for four months in various detention centers. After the regime’s fall, he visited a number of detention centers and filmed documentaries aiming to help tens of thousands of families find their loved ones and hold perpetrators accountable through a web portal called (Syria Prisons Museum) providing access to files, photos, and evidence he collects.
When he visited the al-Khatib branch prison in February, he was initially barred from entry on the grounds that there were prisoners inside, but he managed to enter and saw men crowded in a cell where he had been detained for 16 days under Assad.
Matar also visited the Harasta detention center in Damascus, formerly run by Assad’s Air Force Intelligence Directorate and infamous for brutal torture practices. The guards told him there were new prisoners but allowed him to enter.
In September, Matar was heading to Lebanon carrying recordings of interviews with Syrian families saved on a hard drive when he was stopped at a passport checkpoint. In the border crossing hall, he was surprised to be led to a dirty cell and accused of smuggling secret documents.
He recounted seeing several handwritten dates on the walls, all from 2025. Matar knew from his experience under Assad’s rule how to leave his mark. He tore a cigarette pack, shaped the metal foil inside into a pointed tip, and wrote: “Justice! Even if the world collapses!”
* **”I Am Now in a Bigger Prison”**
Shara’s pledge to build a new Syria requires holding accountable those who enabled Assad to commit his crimes while simultaneously extracting the country from the inferno of a devastating civil war that began in 2011 and ended with Assad’s flight to Moscow last December.
While Shara pledged in mid-December last year to close the prisons, his forces were detaining soldiers from Assad’s army, including conscripts forced into military service with no choice regarding where or the nature of the fighting, in addition to some officers.
All of these are held in centers that witnessed past violations, without public lists of their names, and the government has not disclosed their detention locations.
It also did not clarify the number of detained soldiers or whether they are considered prisoners of war—a status granting them special legal protection.
Some obtained amnesty after negotiations with the government, either through informal mediation with community leaders, activists, and religious figures, or directly through the Supreme Committee for Preserving Societal Peace, a government committee.
Among soldiers released through the intervention of the Societal Peace Committee was a former conscript in his mid-twenties who requested anonymity. He had fled to Iraq with the collapse of Assad’s rule, then returned after the new Syrian leadership pledged to interrogate soldiers and release those who had not committed crimes.
He said he was among the first arrested after Assad’s fall, spent six months in Adra prison in Damascus, and was released in May after repeated contacts from his family with the Societal Peace Committee.
Despite eight months since his release, he still lacks documents proving his innocence and fears being arrested again at any moment. The Syrian authorities began issuing identity cards to some former soldiers, but he has not received one yet.
The young soldier, who rarely leaves his home, said: “I am now in a bigger prison.” He spoke to Reuters on a farm near the Mediterranean, where drought had cracked the earth under the citrus trees owned by his family.
The detainee lists reviewed by Reuters include names of soldiers held in prisons in Damascus, Homs, Hama, and Afrin. These soldiers are in prisons alongside civilians detained for security reasons and those accused of criminal offenses. Family visit organizers shared these lists with Reuters.
A former detainee in Adra prison in Damascus, one of Syria’s largest prisons, said the cells were so crowded that prisoners had to sleep on their sides.
The former detainee—a Sunni—said there was no medicine or hot water for bathing. He said his food was limited to a few olives, dates, and one piece of bread daily. During his nearly two-month detention, he lost over 20 kilograms.
The government stated that Adra prison currently houses 3,599 inmates, slightly above its capacity of 3,550, including 439 security detainees.
Regarding all detention facilities, it stated in the statement: “The current reality is not the desired one, but we are in a period of building institutions and rehabilitating prisons, nevertheless the humanitarian situation has improved significantly.”
Detainees held in the Kafr Sousa security square and the Mezzeh Political Security branch in Damascus describe some of the harshest conditions. Both prisons were under the management of branches of Assad’s intelligence apparatus during the civil war.
The government told Reuters they are currently used as temporary detention centers for detainees pending the completion of legal procedures.
Matar, who visited Kafr Sousa prison in February, noted that new prisoners had begun occupying parts of the prison then, after it was emptied following Assad’s fall.
One detainee, an Alawite arrested with his brother in mid-May, told Reuters he was held in both Kafr Sousa and Mezzeh, the latter formerly used by Assad’s Political Security branch. He added that a neighbor’s complaint about noise on their street led to a raid on the family home in May by Internal Security Forces, still known by its former name, the General Security Directorate.
Officers took them after verifying their IDs, which indicated their birthplace was Latakia, a majority-Alawite area.
In Mezzeh, he said 30 men shared one cell. He saw his brother there once, when new prisoners were being forcibly shaved. The guards ordered the men not to lift their eyes from the ground, a practice common under Assad.
“It was the first time in my life I was imprisoned. A very harsh experience,” he recounts. There, he was interrogated for a week, whipped with wires, and accused of being an Assad supporter.
He said he was then transferred to the Kafr Sousa detention center, also located in Damascus. He saw his brother there again with a swollen face, and they did not speak because prisoners are not allowed to talk to each other.
There, his new interrogators questioned him for hours about his religion. “Do you pray? Do you worship God?” But he said it was worse for former soldiers: “They would come out of interrogation broken, unable to walk.”
After two weeks of his arrest, an investigator covered his eyes and forced him to thumbprint a paper he couldn’t see, then placed him in a car. He said they dropped him off on a street in Damascus and gave him a final order: “Don’t look back and don’t remove your blindfold until we leave.”
He did not see the document and does not know what was written on it. He also does not know the fate of his brother.
Profiting from Arrest
As much as the detention system under Assad was a tool for suppressing opposition, it was also a source of enormous profits for those working in it—guards, judges, and lawyers. According to a 2024 UN report, “massive bribes” were a key factor in ensuring the release of detainees or speeding up their legal procedures.
Despite the new government’s promises to combat corruption, 14 families and four lawyers recounted being subjected to financial extortion in exchange for the release of detainees. In most cases, they were uncertain of the identity of the person contacting them by phone demanding money or their connection to the detention process.
The demanded amounts vary drastically. For example, families of ordinary detainees—conscripts, farmers, workers—were asked to pay amounts ranging from $500 to $15,000. Meanwhile, families of army officers, or individuals who had influence under Assad or were believed to be well-off, said the amounts demanded from them were much larger.
Six families reported that the ransom demanded by the person contacting them exceeded one billion Syrian pounds, equivalent to $90,000.
Among the missing were several members of one Alawite family who disappeared during the killings that occurred in March on the coast. A conversation via WhatsApp began in late March between the sister of one of the men and a person claiming to be a prison guard.
One conversation, reviewed by Reuters, shows the guard demanding $3,000 in cash for the release of all the men except one, who he claimed had died. The guard set a deadline for payment.
When the family asked about the men’s condition, the guard said, “What do you think?… Torture and ghosts (a torture method).”
The family did not have the required money, and the guard refused to tell them which of the men had died or provide proof that the others were still alive.
The guard wrote: “Don’t contact me except for the money… When you’re ready, come to Idlib.”
The guard and the family exchanged text messages until October, but did not reach a resolution.
Another family shared an audio recording demanding the payment of 100 million Syrian pounds—equivalent to $9,000—for an army officer they say was arrested on December 31, 2024, while on his way to surrender to the new government.
The following is the text of the conversation between a relative of the officer and his alleged guard, who called from the detained officer’s phone that day:
Guard: “Bring 100 million and come.”
Relative: “What? 100 million. Where from? Even if I sold this house, it wouldn’t get 100 million.”
Guard: “Listen, listen, listen, you won’t see him again.”
The family said they did not have the money to pay and have heard nothing since.
Many former detainees confirm that paying money does not guarantee safety.
A 50-year-old farmer from a village on the outskirts of Homs said he was arrested twice by Internal Security Forces elements.
The first time, in March, two small trucks bearing the Internal Security Forces logo stopped, and masked armed men dressed in black got out. They surrounded his house, blindfolded him and his young son, and took them to the local police station to interrogate them about who owns weapons in the village.
He stated that they put his head, arms, and legs inside a car tire to immobilize him, a practice known as “the tire” that began under Assad. Then they severely beat him and his son.
He added that his captors directed insults at him throughout his detention, saying, “You are infidels, you are pigs.” The farmer showed Reuters pictures showing his feet swollen and puncture marks on his ankles. A religious figure who works as a mediator with the security forces confirmed the accuracy of his account.
The farmer was told that paying $4,000 would secure their release. Then officers released him and his son to collect the required amount. He said the car that came to collect the money bore the Internal Security logo, like the cars that transported the men who arrested him. But the next day, another car bearing the same logo arrived to return him to the police station.
This time, he was beaten until he lost consciousness. That was his good fortune. The farmer said they returned him to his family wrapped in a blanket, thinking he was dead. His friends smuggled him and his son out of Syria.
Syrians have their own terminology for torture, formed over five decades of dictatorship and continued use during 14 years of civil war. According to detainees under the new government, these terms still exist even after Assad’s fall.
Among them is “the tire” experienced by the farmer. “The ghost” means hanging the detainee by his wrists. “The reception party” happens upon arrival at detention centers, where guards line up in the corridor and beat new detainees.
A young Alawite man said he was arrested on March 9 in Latakia after leaving his home during a government crackdown in response to the pro-Assad uprising.
Men dressed in black took him, pulled his jacket over his head, removed his shoes, and threw him into their car on suspicion that he was filming security forces movements with his phone.
The young man recounts that his mistreatment began immediately with a “reception party” at the Military Security branch in the coastal area: “Everyone ordered me to bark like a dog. And they beat me with rifle butts, their fists, and their shoes. I felt my life was over.”
He added in his talk to Reuters that he was transferred from there to three other detention centers in Latakia, all used during the Assad era, and each had its own reception party.
He recounted being hung by his ankles and having a pistol put in his mouth. Then he was placed in windowless solitary confinement for 20 days. The young man stated that during two transfers, his jailers thought of killing him and throwing his body into the sea due to overcrowded cells.
Finally, after four months, he was released barefoot. His captors did not give him another shoe to replace the one torn during his arrest.
Reuters was unable to independently verify his account, but it is consistent with accounts of mistreatment that at least eight former detainees said they experienced or witnessed others experiencing.
The young man was among at least 53 detainees whose detention period exceeded the legal limit of 60 days without judicial procedures.
The government stated: “The policy of the Ministry of Interior is consistent with Syrian law,” which ensures, according to it, that “every detainee has a fundamental right to legal counsel.” It added that “arrest operations” are carried out “within the legal framework that permits in some cases arrest outside the judiciary, including cases of preventing an imminent danger or the outbreak of violence.”
In late November, the Interior Ministry published a new code of conduct for all its personnel stipulating, among other things, “preserving and consolidating human rights for all persons and treating everyone with dignity as stipulated in international conventions,” and “safeguarding human dignity, rights, and freedoms and refraining from all forms of torture,” while allowing the use of force “within prescribed limits.”
Assad’s Legacy
Reuters documented the deaths of at least 11 people while in detention by speaking directly with their relatives, including three the government said their deaths are under investigation. The government did not provide the total number of deaths in custody and did not comment on Reuters’ findings regarding them.
Among them is a detainee in Kafr Sousa named Milad al-Farkh. He was a 59-year-old Christian trader whose family says he was arrested on August 24 on charges of hiding weapons, working as an arms dealer, and selling expired meat in a butcher shop he owns.
Al-Farkh’s family described his arrest as an attempt to pressure them to pay a $10,000 protection ransom.
After two weeks, an inmate in Kafr Sousa managed to contact the family to inform them that al-Farkh was dying from torture. The family said a call from a hospital morgue came the next day, September 9, informing them of his death.
A relative was arrested for demanding an autopsy before a senior Internal Security official and religious figures intervened, and doctors concluded that al-Farkh died from his head hitting the ground after a fall, and the body was handed over to the family. His family has not yet seen the autopsy report or any written document about his arrest or death.
Reuters reviewed photos of al-Farkh’s body taken at the morgue showing what appears to be a bloody wound on the back of his head.
On September 25, after al-Farkh’s family submitted a petition to investigate his death, the Interior Ministry announced it had searched his home and found a bomb, which the family denies, affirming there were no explosives in the home.
Reuters documented other deaths at a checkpoint in Tartous and a prison there, in addition to other detention places, including a police station in Damascus near the Umayyad Mosque.
Three families informed Reuters that they only learned of their relatives’ deaths after their bodies were buried. Among them are three men arrested in Homs in January: a former soldier and his two sons, who were also soldiers under Assad. Their families said they last saw them being taken away by Internal Security elements.
The governor’s office informed them the men were in Homs Central Prison. For five months, the family said they regularly went to the prison to leave food, medicine, and clean clothes, and received dirty clothes said to belong to the three detainees. They added that they paid thousands of dollars to unknown intermediaries but were not allowed to see the men.
After despair set in, two relatives went to the Homs morgue and convinced an employee there to review digital photos of unidentified bodies. Then the family discovered the men had died since January.
Two family members, in separate interviews with Reuters, said the written autopsy reports below the photos indicated that the 62-year-old father was slaughtered. They added that one son’s face was disfigured and his skin flayed, while the other was killed by a bullet to the face. They confirmed they were not allowed to keep any documents, including the autopsy reports. Reuters was unable to obtain the photos or reports.
The offices of the governors of Homs, Tartous, or Latakia did not respond to requests for comment.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights, which began documenting violations under Assad in 2011, continues to issue monthly reports on arbitrary arrests. During 2025, the Network documented 16 deaths in detention centers under the new government.
In its latest report, issued in early December, the Network called on Syria’s new leaders to adopt “laws that put an end to the horrific era of arbitrary arrests and enforced disappearance.”
Matar’s experience in prison under the new government was short but psychologically exhausting. The journalist and filmmaker said he was released within 24 hours from the border checkpoint with Lebanon without any charges being brought against him.
The government said in its response to Reuters: “Every suspect tampering with documents and evidence has been dealt with according to legal frameworks, and this is what happened with Amer Matar.”
Matar has no documents proving he was detained or released.
Matar said: “The regime fell, but those ruling today decided to turn Assad’s prisons into new prisons. I swear to God, it’s unbelievable.”
He added that he did not recover the hard drive confiscated by security personnel at the checkpoint. He arrived in Lebanon ten days later and has not returned to Syria since.