Syrians search Sednaya prison for missing loved ones
Families from across Syria have been flocking to the infamous prison, north of Damascus, hoping to find long-lost family members imprisoned under al-Assad’s decades-long rule.
Thousands of Syrians were detained there for political crimes like opposing the government.
US charges two Syrian intelligence officials with war crimes
The US Justice Department says it has charged two former high-ranking officials in Syria with engaging in a conspiracy to commit cruel and inhuman treatment of detainees, including American citizens, during the course of the country’s war.
The department, in a statement on Monday, named the two officials as former Syrian Air Force intelligence officers, Jamil Hassan, 72, and Abdul Salam Mahmoud, 65.
It alleged that, between 2012 to 2019, the pair conspired to “intimidate, threaten, punish, and kill people” who had been detained at the Mezzeh Prison near Damascus on suspicion of aiding or supporting opponents of al-Assad’s regime.
“These Assad regime intelligence officials whipped, kicked, electrocuted, and burned their victims; hung them by their wrists for prolonged periods of time; threatened them with rape and death; and falsely told them that their family members had been killed,” US Attorney General Merrick Garland said in the statement.
Warrants for the pair’s arrest have been issued, the Justice Department said.
Toppling al-Assad ‘won’t solve Syria’s humanitarian crisis’
Mathieu Rouquette, the country director for Mercy Corps in Syria, described al-Assad’s toppling as an important moment for Syrians but said it won’t be enough to solve the country’s humanitarian crisis.
“This watershed moment will not in itself solve over a decade of worsening humanitarian and economic crisis. Years of conflict as well as natural disasters have devastated Syria’s economy, halted production of supplies and services, and destroyed livelihoods,” Rouquette said in a statement.
He noted that the millions of Syrian refugees returning home could find that their houses and communities are uninhabitable, and themselves in urgent need of assistance.
Mercy Corps said the risk of civil unrest remains high and called for the “protection of civilians and the infrastructure they depend on, and unimpeded humanitarian access to people in need”.
