Mon Dec 09 15:15:02 UTC 2024: ## Thousands Freed, Families Search for Missing at Notorious Syrian Prison After Regime Collapse
**Damascus, Syria** – A wave of elation and desperate searching swept across Syria Monday following the collapse of President Bashar al-Assad’s government. Thousands of prisoners poured out of jails across the country Sunday, many after years of detention in the regime’s infamous network of prisons, including the notorious Sednaya Prison near Damascus.
The White Helmets rescue group reported that intense searches were underway at Sednaya for hidden underground cells, believed to hold additional detainees. The group dispatched emergency teams to assist in the effort. For decades, al-Assad’s regime operated one of the Middle East’s harshest police states, holding hundreds of thousands of political prisoners, often with families receiving no information about their fate.
The fall of the Assad regime prompted the liberation of prisoners from some of the most notorious detention facilities in and around Damascus. While joyous reunions took place across Syria as families were reunited with loved ones lost for years, the search for those still missing continues. The White Helmets and relatives are focused on uncovering any remaining detainees within the complex prison system built during Assad’s five-decade rule. The scale of human rights abuses within these facilities has been extensively documented by international organizations. The search for missing persons is expected to be a lengthy and arduous process.
First Piper 