Syrian rebels unable to unlock Sednaya prison's underground cells but free hundreds

Sednaya prison, Syria’s “human slaughterhouse” fell into the hands of the rebels on Saturday as Bashar al-Assad's rule came to an end.

Fighters freed hundreds of inmates, including women and young children. However, there were subterranean cells that they were not yet able to access.

“We celebrate with the Syrian people the news of freeing our prisoners and releasing their chains and announcing the end of the era of injustice in Sednaya prison,” rebels said shortly after taking over the notorious facility.

Footage from the prison showed rebels breaking doors open and telling inmates they were free.

Thousands were seen leaving the prison, with people screaming in the streets. Many had been in the prison for several years.

While some footage showed jubilation, others featured inmates simply confused over what was happening.

One video showed women struggling to understand what the rebels were telling them, not believing they were genuinely free to leave, while at least one child was seen walking out of a prison cell.

“You are free now, everyone go home,” one man was heard telling the women.

“He's gone, Bashar al-Assad is gone, you can leave,” another man said.

A group of freed men said they had been due to be executed on the day rebels took over the facility.

Buses were seen transporting the prisoners as they were met by large crowds and celebratory gunfire.

The joy was incomplete, though, as rebels said they were only able to open the overground prison cells in Sednaya.

“Three floors underground, there is a prison known as the red prison, it has not yet been opened,” Omar Saoud, a local activist, said in a video from the scene.

“They are not being able to open it because it requires a certain mechanism, and the soldiers and officers who used to be here have left.”

Saoud called on the Syrian Civil Defence to handle the situation and requested digging or demining operations to get the prisoners out.

‘Human slaughterhouse’

Syria’s Sednaya prison was known as a “human slaughterhouse” by Syrians and human rights organisations.

In a 2017 report, Amnesty International concluded that “the Syrian authorities’ violations at Saydnaya amount to crimes against humanity”.

“Murder, torture, enforced disappearance and extermination carried out at Saydnaya since 2011 have been perpetrated as part of an attack against the civilian population that has been widespread, as well as systematic, and carried out in furtherance of state policy,” the human rights group said.

One man freed from Sednaya was unable to speak when people asked him who he was and seemed to have no recollection of his identity.

Syrians, Lebanese and Palestinians still await more news to come out regarding released prisoners in Sednaya and other Syrian prisons, hoping to hear news of their missing loved ones.