The Syria Civil Defence announces the end of search operations in Sednaya prison without finding further detainees
The Syria Civil Defence announced in a statement “the end of search operations for possible detainees in hidden cells and basements inside the notorious Sednaya prison without finding any secret basements there.”
The statement said: “The specialized Civil Defence searched in all the sections and facilities of the prison, basements, courtyards, exiles with the presence of individuals familiar with the prison’s details, but did not find any evidence of undiscovered cells.”
The statement added: “The search teams divided into specialized teams, support and ambulance teams, K9 teams (trained police dogs) and tracked the entrances, exiles, ventilation shafts, electrical wiring, and surveillance cameras without finding basements or cells.”
The statement pointed out that “the wide dissemination of disinformation and rumors about the prisons and the detainees cause psychological pains for the victims’ families.”
The statement called on all parties, activists, and families of victims not to dig in prisons or damage them, because that would lead to the destruction of physical evidence that may be essential for revealing the facts and supporting justice and accountability efforts.
The statement stressed: “The Civil Defense teams are ready to deal with any prison suspected of containing detainees in secret places, and to uncover mass graves, identify unknown bodies, and hand them over to their families in the hope of helping heal the wounds.”
In its statement, The Civil Defense called on all international and specialized institutions and local authorities to support the efforts of Syrian civil society to uncover the fate of missing persons from all parties.
The Civil Defense also expressed its disappointment that there are thousands of detainees who are still missing, and whose families have not been able to access any information that reveals their fate.
It is noteworthy that Seydnaya prison contains thousands of innocent people who were arrested by the former Assad regime, amid beliefs that some of them were not able to leave with hundreds of detainees during the past two days due to their presence in tightly closed sites.
