Corpses, men who don’t know their names: Scenes from a Damascus hospital

Over 100,000 Syrians were disappeared by the Assad regime. At a hospital in Damascus, their families search desperately.

Damascus, Syria – In the furthest room of the Mujtahid Hospital basement in Damascus, a frail young man with jet-black hair crouches on the floor. He holds his face in his trembling hands as people walk in and out.

People come in to look at him, hoping he might be their lost relative. When they manage to convince the man to look up, his face stares not at them, but through them, his eyes calm but distant.

A young doctor, who asked to remain anonymous, at the reception desk says: “They don’t recognise anyone.

“He only remembers his name, and sometimes it’s the wrong name. It may be the name of one of his cellmates.”

The staff here say the man was tortured at the Red Prison at Sednaya, the most brutal and notorious of prisons the regime of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad operated.