A macabre torture machine used to crush bodies has been discovered in a Syrian prison nicknamed the “human slaughterhouse.”
Video of the “iron press” was posted online as rebels freed inmates from Sednaya Prison near Damascus, the capital of Syria.
The hydraulic press was filmed along with ropes and bags allegedly used to dispose of the remains.
“After he is hanged, they put him in the press and press him to become like paper,” a caption accompanying the video reads. It continues: “His body and bones are crushed. There are blood channels under the press. Then his remains are put in a bag and disposed of outside the prison.”
The press was reportedly used to crush and execute prisoners held by the Assad regime, which has been accused of human rights abuses.
The video has not been independently verified.
Amnesty International called Sednaya Prison a “human slaughterhouse” and accused Assad’s government of systematic torture and of secretly executing up to 13,000 Syrians at the time of the last uprising between 2011 and 2016.
Syrian rebels are said to have released thousands of prisoners, including women and children, held in underground cells at the hellhole prison. There are reports that many more are still trapped. The cells are said to be in a vast network of buried tunnels that are only accessible using electronic keypads.
Women inmates could be heard screaming with their children as their cells were opened. One toddler walked down a corridor with his mother.
“Don’t be afraid… Bashar Assad has fallen,” a rebel told one group of freed women prisoners.
Writer Bashar Barhoum, 63, was among those freed. He told the Associated Press he was due to be executed on Sunday.
“I haven’t seen the sun until today,” he said after spending seven months behind bars.
“Instead of being dead tomorrow, thank God, he gave me a new lease of life.”
The country’s former President Bashar al-Assad has fled with his family to Moscow, where they are being given asylum.
