OHCHR / SYRIA TURK VISIT
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STORY: OHCHR / SYRIA TÜRK VISIT
TRT: 04:01
SOURCE: OHCHR
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / ARABIC / NATS
DATELINE: 12, 14 JANUARY 2025, SEDNAYA, SYRIA
12 JANUARY 2025, SEDNAYA, SYRIA
1. Wide shot exterior, entrance of Sednaya prison.
2. Travelling shot, exterior, driving into prison grounds
3. Med shot exterior, prison
4. Travelling shot, interior, entering prison
5. Various shots, interior, hallways, cell doors, cells
6. Travelling shot, interior, Syrian lawyer Lama Rifai walking
7. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Lama Rifai, Lawyer, Syria:
“I’m here to review these writings on the walls.”
8. Close up, graffiti on cell walls
9. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Lama Rifai, Lawyer, Syria:
“These are the isolation cells. Former detainees have told us they used to be placed here at the start of their detention. Their first ‘welcome’ was in isolation cells. In one of the writings on the walls, one of them says: ‘First day, severe beating’.”
10. Med shot, corridor in prison
14 JANUARY 2025, SEDNAYA, SYRIA
11. Med shot, UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk in Sednaya prison
12. Med shot, Türk listening to a former detainee
13. SOUNDBITE (Arabic / English) Former Detainee:
“The worst moment for him (former detainee) there was a major colonel a pilot he died. They pulled him outside they kick and asked who allowed you to die.”
14. Various shots, interior, Türk in Sednaya prison hallways
15. SOUNDBITE (Arabic / English) Former Detainee:
“They were jumping on our backs, and someone was beating me, and someone else was asking me questions interrogating me,” “and when we first got here, for four days we had no clothes.”
16. Med shot, Türk listening to a former detainee
17. Various shots, interior, cell doors, inside cells
18. SOUNDBITE (English) Volker Türk, High Commissioner for Human Rights, United Nations:
“I am in Syria. To be more precise, in Sednaya and this was a notorious prison complex during the Assad regime. It’s haunted by the memories of utmost cruelty. It’s unbelievable what human beings can do to each other. And I can only hope from the bottom of my heart that this is a lesson both for the healing of Syria and fir the Syrians, but also a lesson for the world that we must never allow such cruelties to happen again.”
19. Wide shot, hallway
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk today (14 Jan) visited the recently opened Sednaya prison, on the outskirts of Damascus, where thousands of detainees were subjected to ill-treatment, torture and enforced disappearance.
Among the detainees in Sednaya, had been those who were considered by the former regime as “enemies” of the Syrian people. Hundreds of detainees died to torture in Sednaya, while thousands remain missing. It was only one of several detention facilities used by the former regime to crush dissent.
The Sednaya prison was built in the 1980s, following mass killings in Hama governorate. It held most of the victims that appeared in Caesar’s files of dead detainees.
Lama Rifai is a Syrian lawyer who has advocated for freedom since anti-government protests broke out in the southern province of Dara'a in 2011. She and her colleagues were recently at the Sednaya prison, going cell-to-cell to document writings and drawings left by former detainees on the walls of their cells.
“I’m here to review these writings on the walls,” she said, as she collected them for research at a university in Tunisia by a Syrian researcher.
Rifai said, “these are the isolation cells. Former detainees have told us they used to be placed here at the start of their detention. Their first ‘welcome’ was in isolation cells. In one of the writings on the walls, one of them says: ‘First day, severe beating’.”
During his visit on Tuesday, the UN Human Rights Chief met with a former detainee, who was incarcerated following suspicions that he was going to defect from the regime air force.
“The worst moment for him (former detainee) there was when a major colonel, a pilot, died. They pulled him outside, then started kicking his body shouting ‘who allowed you to die’,” the former detainee told Türk.
The former detainee said, “they were jumping on our backs, and someone was beating me, while another was asking me questions, interrogating me,” he said, adding, “when we first got here, we had no clothes for four days.”
Reports received by the UN Human Rights Office indicate that thousands of detainees in Sednaya were extrajudicially executed and their deaths were not declared to their families. No national or international body were granted access to Sednaya or any of the prisons run by the former regime.
After his visit, Türk stated, “I am in Syria. To be more precise, in Sednaya and this was a notorious prison complex during the Assad regime. It’s haunted by the memories of utmost cruelty. It’s unbelievable what human beings can do to each other. And I can only hope from the bottom of my heart that this is a lesson both for the healing of Syria and for the Syrians, but also a lesson for the world that we must never allow such cruelties to happen again.”
Türk arrived in Damascus on Tuesday at the start of a visit to Syria and Lebanon from 14 to 16 January.
During his two-country visit, the UN Human Rights Chief is scheduled to meet officials, as well as representatives of civil society organisations, members of the diplomatic corps and UN entities.