A Videotaped Testimony with (Sameer Ajeeneh), Former Detainee in the Air Force Branch They Cannot be Human! Violation Documentation Center in Syria November 2013
Introduction The Syrian regime, since the beginning of the Syrian Revolution in March 2011, chose to handle all those who took to the streets and called for political, human and civil rights by arbitrary detention. The branch of Air Forces intelligence, one of the fiercest security systems in Syria, had a big role in the practice of arbitrary detention and extrajudicial killings by firing live ammunition at armless demonstrators in the streets, in addition to the systematic and cruel torture in its various branches. Several cases of martyrdom under torture inside the branch have been reported. Furthermore, it's the most notorious among all other security bodies in Syria. In this report, we present the testimony of a former detainee who was released in an exchange deal with the regime. The interview took place in Eastern Gouta on 23/6/2013. Summary VDC in Syria conducted a videotaped Testimony on 23.06.2013 and on 25.06.2013 with the former detainee Sameer Omar Ajeeneh, who had been arrested twice by the Air Forces Intelligence in Damascus, the first detention was from 15-04-2011 until 06-06-2011 (52 days), and the second was from 08-08-2011 until 05.28.2013 (659) days. That are (711) days. He narrates the torture and inhumane treatment he was exposed to inside the Investigation Branch (Mezzeh Airport) and the Information and Management Branch (Commitment Branch), which are both subsidiaries of the Air Forces Intelligence in Damascus. This report presents the detailed testimony of what happened to him inside all detention centers ha had been to, and of the abuses he had witnessed against other detainees such as the terrible ways of torture that led to the killing of four prisoners who died of hunger and thirst inside the detention.
A satellite image showing the location of Investigation Division (Mazzeh Airport) A satellite image showing the location of Information Division ( Abbasyeen Square)
A satellite image showing the location of Air Forces Intelligence Division ( Tahrir Square) The complete Testimony is available on the following links: -The first part: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6kyw_dsd40 -The second part: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7nnpwnuazq -a shortened interview translated into English is available on the following link: youtu.be/lte8chwdopg
The Testimony My name is Sameer Omar Ajeeneh, I am 40 years old, I was born in 1973, I work in human resources, I am married and I have two children. The first arrest: I was first arrested by the Air Forces Intelligence on 15/04/2011 and remained in detention for 50 days in the Investigation Branch at Mezzeh Airport. The reasons for which I got arrested are; communicating some satellite channels (Al Jazeera) by my mobile phone, organizing demonstrations and calling for them, and the charges for which I, later on, had been transferred to the Public Prosecution were (rioting and stirring sectarian strife). I was arrested from my work in Jobar neighborhood at six o'clock in the evening when someone claimed that he wanted something from me and asked to meet me at my work place. He came the next day on time with a patrol to arrest me in a car, a tourist (Minibus), with 7-8 people inside. With their civilian clothes, they introduced themselves as security agents, and they had a weapon inside the car. They covered my eyes and lowered my head behind the seat. I did not know the first place they took me to; however I think it was the Information Branch at Abbasyeen Square. There, I stayed for only half an hour during which I underwent a preliminary investigation by an interrogator that spoke to me well (nicely), threating me with violence without using it. They told me they would transfer me to another branch where I would be treated in a better way, and they asked me NOT to change my words. I spoke the truth; I did not hide that I was going out in demonstrations and that I had political demands related primarily to liberties, human rights and devolution of power and that all the demonstrations called for the same, and that I participated in staging the demonstrations. The Detective was impressed and considered my words to be good at the time In Mezzeh Airport (Investigation Branch), to where I had been transferred, they treated the detainees in a significantly violent way, however I was not been hit violently compared to them. They took me into the Department of Studies in the airport and started beating me with their hands and feet saying (you will never go out of here alive and you will die here) Then they began pressurizing me psychologically by saying: You widowed your wife and orphaned your children.you will never see them and your mother again. However, when they were beating me I laughed, I put my head between my legs and laughed while they were beating me on my head and my back violently.
I was put in an office where there was a chair. Every time someone entered, he hit me, whether he knew me or not. One of them, for example, entered and told me to raise up my head, I thought he wanted to recognize my identity, but when I raised my head he hit me on my face while my eyes were covered. My hands were tied behind my back annoyingly. I remained like that for about half an hour, they asked me some questions and wrote down some preliminary information about my personal data then they sent me to the Investigation Branch after they had taken all my possessions; my laptop, my 3G (modem) and my mobile phone. The first day at the old Investigation Branch - two branches were established later - was very crowded and there was no place for me in the cells. One of the agents came, tied my hands forward, brought me a blanket and asked me to sleep in the corridor. I guess it was around 11 pm, and I slept there till four in the morning when they woke me up and put me in the single cell then called upon me for an interrogation carried out by a colonel and another officer, a major or a lieutenant. The interrogation began by asking me about the reason I went out in demonstrations, my demands and why I did what I had done, so I told them my point of view regarding liberties, human rights and devolution of power. The interrogation lasted for 6 continuous hours. The Colonel treated me well and asked me to sit down on a chair, a thing they do not usually do with detainees. Of course, I remained handcuffed and my eyes remained covered. The interrogator left me so we continue the next day. Thus, they took me back to the cell where there had been about 30 detainees but no place to sleep. On the next day, they interrogated me again. The interrogation was limited to oral communication; they did not hit me although they threatened me to do so. They interrogated me 6 times in a row over the next four days; each time lasted for 2-4 hours and sometimes lasted for six hours. Until then, my psychological condition was good but the situation in the cell was very bad. The cell was about 20-25 m 2, in which about 30 people were put, on charges related to the revolution. The cell was extremely dirty, disgusting and very crowded, where skin diseases (such as lice) were spread widely. We stayed a whole month without a shower. They allowed us to go to the toilet two or three times a day - as there was no toilet inside the cell - and we were almost naked (wearing only our underwear). We were trying to count the number of detainees in the branch by counting those who got in and out of the bathroom; there were almost 400-500 detainees. When they told us to prepare ourselves to go to the bathroom, we had to take off our
clothes except for the underwear and wait for our turn, and as soon as anyone came out, the jailor started beating him and insulting his honor, his religion and his sacred beliefs. The same routine continued. They used to call me "Al-Jazeera correspondent". Wherever I moved they beat me. The only good thing I got was a visit from my family, a thing that was hardly allowed there. About a month after my arrest, Colonel (Hossam Sukkariyah) gave my family permission from the Presidential Palace to visit me. Prior to that moment, they could not know where I was, moreover, they asked the same branch I was detained in, and they denied I was there. The second visit was on the day of my release as my parents had no idea I was going to be released. On 6-6-2011, there was a meeting between my revolutionary friends from Jobar and Bashar al- Assad in the Presidential Palace; my release was my friend's condition to accept the meeting. Before releasing me, they hit me severely, as more than ten agents gathered to beat me- a thing they had not done during the days of interrogation. They also threatened me that if I went back to demonstrations, they would storm my house and haunt me everywhere. That beating caused me ruptures in the bronchi, and I have an x-ray photograph that shows those ruptures. I was released on the same day after I had been transferred to the Criminal Security Department, where I was also severely beaten. I was not allowed to have a lawyer, nor to communicate with anybody. I was released from the Public Prosecution so I get judged at large. They set me a hearing in November 2011, and, of course, at that time I had been arrested for the second time. The second arrest: I stayed about two months and two days outside the prison until 8-8-2011 when I got arrested for the second time from a peaceful demonstration. At that time there was not any armed action in our region, we just organized peaceful demonstrations at different times to confuse the security forces. Our appointment was at 12 o'clock at night. Nearly an hour earlier I entered a by-side road where I got trapped; in front of me were the agents of the Air Forces Intelligence in civilian clothes and behind me were the agents of the Fourth Brigade in army uniforms. I was wanted because I went back to demonstrations, and because of my participation in funerals of martyrs, as I had not been hiding and I had spoken publicly on the microphone during the demonstrations. When they trapped me, they took my ID, and when they found my name among the wanted, they began to beat me in the street, then they put me in a large bus in which there were about fifty recruits from the Fourth Brigade. They said: this is Sameer Ajeeneh! And they hit me more. They seated me in the back seat with my head between my legs, and then one of the recruits began to beat me very violently with his feet on my head and back. I raised my head, and when he tried to beat me on my head I caught his hands so he became more furious and hit me more violently, especially on my head. I hid under the seat while they were arresting other people from
the street; nine young men who had nothing to do with the demonstration. Then they started shooting randomly in the place of detention despite that no one shot them. They seated us next to each other in the back seat while two sat on me until I could no longer breathe so I started screaming. My hands were cuffed behind my back. Then they opened the window a little so we could breathe. We got to the Information Branch, which is a subordinate of the Air Intelligence Branch in Abbasyeen Square in Damascus. Someone in civilian clothes got me inside the branch and prevented the agents from beating me. Later, I knew that he wanted me alive because the agents of the Fourth Brigade may hit the detainee to death. On the first day, they put us in custody after taking away our possessions. I was almost unconscious because of the beating I was exposed to in the bus. It was very hot and crowded, thus I started to have a shortness of breath as I felt a severe pain in the left side of my chest that the other detainees thought I was dying. I was heavily sweating and breathing with difficulty so the detainees were knocking on the door until a first assistant called (Abu Ala'a) came and asked them to get me out to the Branch backyard and to pour water on me. He asked me" do you want to go to the hospital?" I told him, "as you want", so he advised me to stay there because the situation in the hospital is way worse, and gave me some water to drink and then took me back to the cell. On the next day, they did not interrogate me due to my health condition, yet on the third day they did. They asked me about the people I work and organize demonstrations with, and about my relations with some activists especially with my close colleague Sae'ed Salam and other people they want to arrest. I had already thrown the two mobile phones I had before I got arrested so they don't get the saved names. They stopped beating me on my back because of the intense trauma on my thorax, and began to beat me on my head, my feet and my face. They tied my hands behind my back, put me on the floor and began to beat me. Then they seated me on a chair and the assistant began talking to me in politics and the revolution and its motives then called another assistant called (Faisal, Abu Abdo) from the Department of Studies in the Information Branch. Two or three sessions went by like that, then they returned again to beating me with wooden sticks, batons or electric cables in order to get a confession. On the twenty-second day, a reserve Sergeant called (Khaled Sabra) told me that he was going to release me. I caught a sight of a paper referred to the Investigation Branch, that is Mezzeh Airport, and I was afraid to go there, as it would be the second time for me there and they would treat me more violently. Hands cuffed, eyes covered, they took me in a car, and when I arrived, they took my stuff and hit me in the deposit office on my face and head with their hands. Then they took me to the new building.
There, they re-interrogated me from the beginning and did not hit me excessively because they considered me cooperative because I had given them all the names, which they had already been familiar with. I stayed there for 17 days living the same conditions of the first detention. However, the violence and torture increased and I saw a lot of detainees who were injured as a result of torture. 17 days later, they took me back to the Information Branch and left me for four days then called for me saying that they wanted to open the investigation all over again because they received my file from the Investigation Branch and knew that I had been a former detainee. Thus, they opened the investigation again handling the two arrests in one interrogation. They became violent and hit me severely, they put me on the floor, tied me, covered my eyes and four agents hit me alternately. They were asking me the same questions and I was answering the same answers.. They kept hitting me till I got exhausted. They beat me the most by electrical cable, or by an iron rod on my back and feet. After about four hours, the interrogator was asking me and when I did not give him the answers he wanted, he continued beating me saying that they wanted the truth, and when I repeated my answers he hit me again and cursed my honor and sacred beliefs. About seven hours later, I was completely exhausted and could no longer speak so I told him "I will admit anything you want" he said, "you're a liar, you do not want democracy and freedom, all you want is an Islamic emirate" so I said " yes, that is what I want". I just wanted them to stop torturing me. I am a religious man but I am not an Islamist (follower of "Political" Islam). The interrogator then wrote the same interrogation right from the beginning based on those words. Then they made me sign my words on charges of forming a political organization in order to overthrow the government and call for the establishment of an Islamic state. They added the names they wanted on the grounds that they financed the organization and so on. Afterwards, they did not call me to interrogation at all, and after four days, they transferred me - with six other people- to the Investigation Branch in Mezzeh again, and they told us that we would stand before the court and then would be released. Actually, we stayed there until they made us sign some papers, then they took the detainees who were with me to the Criminal Security and took me again to the Information Branch alone. When I stayed with Sergeant Khaled Sabra, I asked him why they brought me back to the branch; he told me that General Jamil Hassan (Commander of the Air Forces Intelligence)
refused to release me. He took me back to the cell where I had stayed for four months then. Next, 15 people were transferred to the Investigation Branch in Mezzeh and then to the Department of the Air Forces Intelligence in Tahrir Square on 8-12-2011. As soon as we got to the cellar, we were beaten severely with hands, feet and batons. It was about 12 at night. They continued beating us about a quarter of an hour and then they put us in very cold dark cells whose ceilings were a metal net under a concrete roof. The cell was 2.25*135 meters We entered the cell in the Air Forces Intelligence Department. The warden hit me intentionally on me right kidney. There, it was hell. We were four of the same group, and I remember that the warden intentionally hit me on the right kidney and I had had bouts of calculi in prison so the severe beating increased the pain. Whenever we went to the bathroom, they hit us severely. They told me to lie down on the floor and lift my feet to hit me twice a day. The system there allowed us to the bathroom only twice a day. The treatment was very bad and we were not allowed to stay in the bathroom for more than thirty seconds. We were almost naked (wearing only our underwear) and came out with our heads down and our backs curved in a right angle. And if one tried to look at the warden, he was severely and violently beaten. We woke up at six o'clock in the morning and we had to stay awake till ten in the evening to sleep. Speaking was not allowed. Every two or three hours, the warden opened the small (window) in the cell door, and if he saw any detainee lying, even without sleeping, he brought him out and hit him on the feet. That lasted about a month with no interrogation. This section is called the Commitment Division. A month later, the beating started to become less, that is every two or three days. The food: The food in the Management Branch is worse than that in the Information Branch and the Investigation Branch, especially in terms of quantity; in the morning, we had a loaf of bread, a spoonful of jam and an egg. The second meal was two loafs and three cups of water. Both meals were inadequate. Three months later, the food was reduced to the quarter; moreover, it was rotten food which caused diarrhea, vomiting and cases of poisoning.
I stayed in that cell for four months before I was transferred to the 'Jamaiah' (the collective room, around 50 m 2 ) which contained some 85 detainees in addition to a toilet and drinking water. No talking was allowed. Sleeping time was at 10 pm and we were allowed to shower once a week. The lightening in the room was on all the time, the disturbing thing, however, was sleeping in such a crowded room as we had to sleep on our sides and stick to each other. That was in April and I stayed there till August when the weather was really hot, the ventilation was bad and we were sweating and suffering the dirt and skin diseases like: mange, lice and ulceration. I had some 60 to 70 carbuncles oozing pus constantly and the medicine was rarely available. Whoever fell ill did not get the medicine until it was too late, and then they gave him an antibiotic pill. Before taking the medicine, the patients were sometimes beaten by the nurse or even by the doctor himself who rarely came as he used to come weekly then monthly then every two or three months. In critical cases, they took the patient to the hospital, but, in most cases, he did not come back. Some of those who went to the hospital told us stories on beating till death or suffocating by the pillow. The severity of torture increased gradually during detention, and sometimes it increased suddenly as the regime 'loses on the ground' according to the guards who blamed us for the war between the regime and rebels. At the beginning of 2013, I was transferred to 'single cells sector' in the Air Forces Intelligence Department in Tahrir Square, Damascus. The sector has a corridor with 14 cells on the sides, each cell contains 6 detainees. The severity of torture is related to the number of the cell. It reaches its highest level at cell number 3 where I was transferred to; they didn't state the reason behind my transfer to this particular cell. It is called the "Death Cell" as the guards told me, and it is the worst torture place all over the branches. At first, I thought they were saying so just to frighten us; however, I knew, later, that many death cases took place in that cell. Ala'a Zahra was the officer in charge of torturing; he was the worst officer I have ever met. He enjoyed torturing us, day and night, with every psychological and physical way, to the degree that some of his co-workers protested and asked him to stop such acts.
Another guard named 'Jaudat', not as brutal as Ala'a, added some daily torture like asking us to take off our clothes except for the underwear in winter and to stand still or kneel down for long hours. The cell description: The cell (225*135 cm 2, with 220 cm height) is designed for one detainee; however, there were 5 or 6 detainees in it. The ceiling is a metal net, 60 cm under a cement roof. All the cells were in the cellar and shared the same ceiling which was full of rats. There was a fan; the ventilation was so bad though. The lightening was so bad that we barely could see each other during daytime and nighttime. They always renovated the torturing methods. Daily punishments were carried out with no specific reasons, as they were asking us (all the detainees in 14 cells) to stand still nearly naked all day and, in some cases, all night. Ala'a Zahra barely slept, he used to leave us at 12:00 midnight to come back at 06:00 in the morning to continue the nightly punishment. During freezing weather in winter, they asked us to stand still away from each other and checked us every few moments from the door opening. If one of the detainees was caught not standing, he would be beaten severely. In other times, they asked us to kneel and didn't allow us to put a blanket or a piece of cloths under our knees. In summer, they asked us to stand near each other as we sweated a lot and barely breathed. These punishments were almost daily. After six or seven hours of constant standing and despite knowing they would beat us, we would sit as we felt dizzy. At the beginning, I used to stand for 12 hours, but, later, I couldn't stand for more than an hour as I got so weak due to the lack of food and water. Agents in Air Intelligence Branch watched us while going to the bathroom; when they noticed a detainee walking properly, they hit him in a try to break his limb. In February 2013, I was accused of inciting my five cellmates to prison-break. That was definitely impossible due to the strict security measures, however, because of this charge, I was punished along with my cellmates, and it was the most painful punishment all over my detention period as ten guards took us out of the cell and started beating us using green plastic pipes, which was extremely painful.
They whipped us ' longitudinally' in a try to cause bone breaking or severe bruises on the legs and arms. Later, they beat us on the back of the hands ' longitudinally' until the skin cleaved. They left us then for like two days to repeat it on the same place. They said it clearly that they did not want us to be able to walk or eat. Guards, also, used to run and throw themselves on our bodies which caused bruises and breakings in the thorax. Two day after the 'prison-break accusation' punishment, Ala'a Zahra came back to check if my hands were still bruised and beat me again until they're swollen. It's been seven months since the incident and till now I still can't move two fingers in the right hand and I can't fully close my left fist. When released, I had an x-ray photograph for my hands. I was told that they are severely bruised and that I need a physical treatment to be able to move them properly again. Regarding the legs, I had a breaking in my leg, but I didn't know. It's still swollen till now. They gave us no medicine. The torturing continued from the beginning of 2013 until I was released on 28 May 2013. Deprivation of food and water punishment: Because of the same 'prison-break accusation', the guards deprived us of food and water for two days. We had witnessed a 'death incident' in cell number 6 where they deprived an Islamic prisonerthat had been in detention for five years- of food and water. Whenever he cried for water, the guards, instead, entered and beat him until he passed away after 17 days. The officer responsible for his cell was the same Ala'a Zahra. When they started depriving us of food and water we laughed and said to each other 'we will be dead in 17 to 15 days; we will meet in heaven'. They asked us to stand still, but we couldn't, so they took us out of the cell and beat us. The ' starving punishment' continued for three days, then they started providing us with little water; 2 cups for the six detainees during the whole day. In the fourth day, they stared giving us half a loaf, half an egg, a spoonful of yogurt, and a spoonful or two of rice every morning and the same in the evening. The fact that they started providing us with food and water again made us distressed as we didn't want this unbearable way of living any more.
The inadequate feeding continued for 13 days. We lost a lot of weigh,t and our ability to focus or walk properly was decreased due to the scarcity of food which, also, made us fantasize about several kinds of food. When the punishment finished, they went back to feeding us just like the rest of the detainees. The cell of swamps: At first, they brought 12 new detainees and divided them on cells numbers 7 & 14, six detainees in each. One of these two cells were next to ours, they asked the detainees there to get naked, without even the underwear. This was in January 2013 the weather was freezing. They filled the cell with water (20 cm depth) and asked the six detainees to stand in the water after beating them brutally. Those detainees were brought from some other branch for this punishment. They left them in such case for three days without any food or water or even going to the toilet. Because of the cold weather, they had diarrhea and started vomiting in the water, and due to dizziness, they started falling in the water and we could hear that vividly. It was more tormenting than being beaten. We heard them moaning, vomiting and falling. Their skin was cleaving because of the contaminated water under them which started to smell really bad. Three days later, they opened the cell and cleaned it before they filled it again and repeated the whole thing. They provided them with a little of food and left them in such case until one of them died. Another one, also, died in the same cell due to the scarcity of food and water. In cell number 6 also, a detainee was deprived of food and water till he died. They applied the ' swamp punishment' along with deprivation of food and toilet on any detainee accused of 'violating the laws', like sleeping during daytime. The punishment of eating one's feces: One of the horrible things that Ala'a Zahra used to do- and he was the only one who did that- is forcing the detainee, who had diarrhea because of the rotten food and who had already been prevented from going to the toilet, to eat his own feces as a punishment. Some detainees, also, peed in the drinking cups and he forced them to drink their own urine and wash their cups after that. This was in addition to tens of swear words and insults to 'our honour and sacred beliefs'; they used to tell us "(you) and (us) can't live in the same country because you came out with this revolution and the only solution is either we exterminate you or you exterminate us". They focused on the sectarian dimension as they said "you (Sunni) hate Alawite and want to exterminate us and we will not allow this, we don't recognize your God, we don't fear Him, and if 'He' exists, why does not He come and rescue you?"
They also said that they will bring 'our God' to the cell to torture 'Him' with us. Furthermore, they kept threatening us of bringing our mothers and sisters to rape them, and if a detainee is married and has kids, they threatened him of raping his daughter. Exchange deal: On 28 May 2013, a guard came and asked me about the location of my possessions. I noticed that these were not 'transfer' procedures, but 'release' ones. At first, they transferred me back to the Information Branch (by which we were firstly detained, at Abbasyeen Square) then the Mayor of my neighborhood (Jober) came and received us. They took off our blindfolds as soon as we got out of the branch with the Mayor and walked towards Jobar as all the entries to the neighborhood was closed with cement barriers. The exchange took place in the northern part of the neighborhood, near Crush Carton Factory. Jobar's rebels exchanged a General, a Colonel and a policeman for three detainees; (Abdulmuen Fatineh, Ayman Khudrawi, and Tariq Fargholy). The exchange went on with no hassle. I later knew that my family and friends were trying, by all means, to get any piece of information about me and that some security agents told them that I was dead. The negotiation process lasted for six months and my family was trying, all that time, to include my name in the exchange list. Sameer continues " I'm still suffering from some medical problems, I'm fine though, thanks God. There are other cases worse than mine". My biggest concern now is for the rest of the detainees to get out. Any possible help for them shouldn't be delayed as they are facing 'certain death' if left 'like that' only. Without taking into consideration the torture they are exposed to; the consequences of deprivation of food and water and dehydration only, can lead to their death. At the end, I want to say that I don't wish all the three officers (Jamil Hasan, Ala'a Zahra, and Jaudat ) any harm but a fair trial. They definitely have lost their humanity. I wouldn't regard their religion or believe, but their humanity; there is no 'human' like Ala'a Zahra who beats, insults, and steps on a dying detainee. They are not humans, they are mentally sick. They cannot be humans!" This interview was conducted by Osama Nassar, VDC on 23 June 2013, Eastern Ghouta. Edited by Amir kazkaz
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