JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
The fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria has meant freedom for thousands of people imprisoned in inhumane conditions across the country. Men, women and children have been held underground - some for decades.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: (Speaking Arabic).
UNIDENTIFIED PRISONER: (Speaking Arabic).
UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: (Speaking Arabic).
UNIDENTIFIED PRISONER: (Speaking Arabic).
UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: (Speaking Arabic).
UNIDENTIFIED PRISONER: (Speaking Arabic).
UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: (Speaking Arabic).
SUMMERS: CNN's Clarissa Ward captured the moment when a prisoner was freed and taken outside for the first time in months.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PRISONER: (Speaking Arabic).
CLARISSA WARD: "Oh, God - the light," he says. "Oh, God - there is light. My God - there is light."
SUMMERS: There are prisons across Syria, but the most infamous is the Sednaya prison, which has been dubbed the Human Slaughterhouse. Given the notorious nature of what went on there, this could be a difficult conversation for some people to hear. It will last for about 8 minutes.
The prison is located just north of Damascus. The intricate complex held tens of thousands of Syrians who were tortured, subjected to rape, and deprived of food, water and basic sanitation. One of those Syrians is Omar Alshogre. He was held in Sednaya for years, starting in 2014. Omar Alshogre, welcome to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.
OMAR ALSHOGRE: Thank you.
SUMMERS: You were detained multiple times in Syria at the hands of the Assad regime. What was your reaction to seeing the regime fall?
ALSHOGRE: There has never been a moment that beautiful. I mean, the joy I felt was so extreme that I cried. I cried almost endlessly. It's a moment that we've been waiting for for a long time.
SUMMERS: If you could, Omar, can you take us back to your time in Sednaya? What was it like?
ALSHOGRE: Just imagine the darkest place you can be in. Imagine missing color, dreaming of seeing a tree, dreaming of drinking water once, be full, and then die, dreaming of eating food once to be full and just die. The pain - the physical pain they put you through is miserable, from the bones that are being broken to the nails that have been pulled out. But more than that, the physical pain is something you sometimes get used to. But there's the mental suffering they put you through. Imagine when you sit in your room with your cellmates, and the guard comes. And with his very soft voice, he tells you, you have to choose one of you to be executed tomorrow. If you don't choose one of you, I will choose three of you to die. Then he leaves. And then you have to sit with your cellmates, and you have to ask them the question - who wants to be murdered brutally tomorrow? Who wants to volunteer to never see their family again? And such a volunteer is not that easy to get. So we had to find a way to do a lottery, so we can get the results or have a winner in the most just way possible. And any time, I could be the winner of the lottery that no one wants to win.
It's been a place of hopelessness, helplessness. It's been a place that reminded us that the world doesn't care. The world knows, but the world doesn't care. The world is doing nothing. And when you believe no one cares about you, no one is doing anything to save you, you give up.
SUMMERS: How is it that you ended up in Sednaya? Why were you arrested?
ALSHOGRE: In Syria, you don't need a reason to be arrested. They arrest you, then they find the reason. I was sitting, chatting with my cousin when they stormed in, and they took me with my cousins to prison. And under torture, they asked me, how many officers have you - I have killed. And I said, you know, I'm still a teenager. I didn't kill anyone, and most importantly, nobody died. And then I realized that if I don't give a false confession, I'll be giving away my life. I will be killed. So I give a false confession. And they give you the hope that if you give the false confession, they will stop the torture. And at that moment, you don't care about the future. You care about the pain stopping now, so you give them the false confession they want. And as soon as you give it, that's when the real torture starts.
SUMMERS: You've talked about the years that you spent there in Sednaya - the way that you were treated, the darkness that you described. I'm curious, what was it like when you realized that you yourself were being freed?
ALSHOGRE: I wasn't freed like someone wants to be freed. I was informed that I was taken to execution, and they put me in a room for two days. Every single hour, day and night, they would come and open the small window. And the guard would ask me, how do you want me to kill you? And I had to answer that question 68 times within 48 hours - different ways of how they could kill me. And every time I have to think about it, I have to imagine. And it feels like they did it, just in my imagination. It felt it was so real. And then 48 hours later, they take me, they put me on the road or somewhere - I just felt like it's outside of prison. And they load their guns, they aim, and they shoot. And I thought I died. But apparently, I didn't.
My mom has bribed everyone. She bribed the people on the top and in the bottom. Even the execution guards were bribed. And from there, I was smuggled to meet my mom for the first time. I didn't realize I was freed. And for over half a year, I was yet afraid that I will wake up and I will be still in prison. Or maybe I died, and I'm on my way to heaven or something. But it was very difficult to believe that I got out because the only thing I remember is them shooting and me dying. But apparently, I have the most magnificently strong, fabulous, beautiful mother in the world.
SUMMERS: What was it like being reunited with her, knowing that she fought so hard for your release, for your safety, for you to emerge from Sednaya?
ALSHOGRE: Just before I met my mom, I saw myself in the mirror - 20 years old, 75 pounds. I could barely walk. There's blood coming out of my eyes, out of my ears, out of my teeth, out of my nose. I have no hair, no eyebrows. I don't look like a human, and I don't think anyone would recognize me. And then I am among a lot of people, and my mom walks towards me. I could barely recognize who she is. So she comes closer. And she holds her hands on me, and then she says, my heart, my life, my son, Omar. And she hugs me very strongly. And I missed - I have missed - severely missed being hugged. It was such a beautiful moment that I ruined it by not understanding that I was alive because I thought that I was dead because I was told that my mom died. And if she died and I am dead, that means we're meeting in heaven. Everything was so confusing. Half a year later, I really felt for the first time that I actually am alive.
SUMMERS: Omar, what are your hopes for a Syria that is no longer under the rule of Bashar al-Assad?
ALSHOGRE: The worst nightmare that Syria has lived is over. Whatever come next, it's better. And if it's bad, it won't be as bad as the regime. And if it's bad, we have the power to bring it down because the Syrian people that fought alone, demonstrated alone, were tortured, starved, killed, bombed with chemical weapons alone. They dreamed alone. They hoped for a better future alone. And the world was silent for 14 years without doing anything - no international community, no United States, no Europe, no Western democracy. No - everybody was silent. And yet, we prevail. Yet, we win.
Imagine, whoever comes next wouldn't dare to challenge the Syrian people. And that gives me hope. That gives me hope because I know people like my mom. She's the hero. And like her, there are hundreds of thousands in Syria. I would never give up because even though they tried to break me both physically and mentally, after years of torture, yet I could be talking to you - smiling, happy, excited about the future. That tells you something about the Syrian people. They won't settle before they have the freedom and the democracy they spoke about since 2011.
SUMMERS: Omar Alshogre, formerly detained in the infamous Sednaya prison in Syria. Thank you so much for joining us and sharing your story.
ALSHOGRE: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
