‘A number not a name’: In Syria, freed prisoners recall horrors of the past
Al Jazeera
Prisoners freed from Aleppo Central Prison recount lives of torture and abuse under the al-Assad regime.
Idlib, Syria – “My name was number 1100,” Hala said, still fearful of being identified by her real name.
Hala is one of the thousands who have been freed from the prisons of ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, after it spectacularly collapsed amid a rebel offensive in less than two weeks.
She told Al Jazeera that she had been taken from a checkpoint in Hama in 2019, accused of “terrorism” – a charge often thrown at anyone suspected of opposing the government. She was taken to Aleppo, where she has spent the time since in various prisons.
That is until Syrian opposition forces arrived at Aleppo’s Central Prison on November 29, freeing her and countless others.
“We couldn’t believe it was real and we would see the light,” she said of the opening of the prison by rebel forces led by Hayat Tahir al-Sham (HTS) in late November.
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