Syrian man, 57, arrested by Assad thugs aged just 18 is FOUND looking dazed outside hellhole prison where he was caged for four decades
A 57-year-old Syrian man who ‘disappeared’ as a teenager after his capture by al-Assad thugs has been spotted by stunned relatives looking in a daze outside a prison after he was released four decades later.
In 1986, Syrian soldiers arrested 18-year-old university student Ali Hassan al-Ali in northern Lebanon. His family had not seen or heard from him for forty years.
But on Thursday, his younger brother Moammar Ali got the biggest surprise of his life when – after 39 years of searching – he found Ali.
His phone exploded with texts and calls when people sent him a photo of a man in his late 50s standing outside Hama’s central prison in northern Syria.
His friends said the man looked like Moammar and he realized ‘this is my brother’.
The awesome sibling said, “He came out of jail an old man.”
Moammar was just one of thousands of people finally released from prison after decades of incarceration.
Rebels freed prisoners from prisons in Aleppo and Hama after taking power and overthrowing the regime of deposed President Bashar al-Assad.
Moammar Ali got the biggest surprise of his life when – after 39 years of searching – he found his older brother Ali, (pictured right), outside a prison – now 57 years old.
Ali is pictured ‘disappearing’ at age 18
Rebels parade in the streets of Hama after troops captured the central city on December 6
People wait today as teams investigate secret compartments of Sednaya Prison after the fall of the Assad regime in Damascus
Speak with The GuardianMoammar said: ‘There was no place in Syria that we did not visit. We went across the country to ask what happened to him. One day they would admit they had him in jail, the next day they would deny it.”
The last information he received was that he was being held on charges of political agitation.
But he will now finally be reunited with his brother – who is now 57.
However, rapidly changing political dynamics make it difficult for authorities to determine who has been released.
Ali has not yet been able to talk to his lost brother and has spent the past day trying to find out who took the photo of him.
He added: “When he comes home we will have a big celebration. But until I smell him, until I can say, ‘Here he is, my brother,’ nothing counts.”
Last night rescuers fought to free Syria’s alleged hellhole, the ‘Red Prison’, but rebels who freed caged women and children are reportedly still unable to access the captured men.
The Saydnayah prison near Damascus – nicknamed the ‘human slaughterhouse’ – is said to contain ‘high security underground’ cells in the red building.
Unverified footage reportedly shows rebels “opening cells one by one” by tearing down walls, and that they have “rescued hundreds of prisoners, including women and young children.”
Teams conduct investigations in secret compartments of Sednaya prison
People stand on the roof of Saydnaya prison as Syrian rescuers search for hidden cellars
Rebels inspect the cells of the infamous Saydnaya military prison
But there are men being held in cells three floors underground in a section called the “Red Prison,” some say.
President Bashar al-Assad’s military prison, also known as the ‘industrial torture chamber’, has hanged between 5,000 and 13,000 prisoners since 2011, according to AlJazeera.
A heartbreaking video shows a toddler walking out of unlocked cell doors looking confused as rebel soldiers shout “Allahu Akbar” – meaning “God is greatest” – as they free hundreds of prisoners.
It comes as an alleged Russian plot to spread fake news about an Al-Assad ‘plane crash’ has been exposed.
Ukraine’s Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security has claimed on
One man released from prison could not speak when people asked him who he was.
Militants frantically cut the padlocks on the doors of prison cells in Saydnaya Prison to free hundreds of female prisoners and their youths after the brutal al-Assad regime was overthrown.
In a video posted to X, women screamed joyfully as they were released, where some had been held for decades. They were put on buses that waited outside the prison before being taken to their homes.
Russian President Vladimir Putin meets Al-Assad at the Kremlin in Moscow in July
Rebel forces launching a lightning offensive in Syria aim to overthrow the rule of President Bashar al-Assad, their Islamist leader said in an interview published on December 6.
Local residents celebrate after opposition forces led by HTS (Hayyet Tahrir al-Sham) took control of Hama city center and surrounding villages on December 6
The rebels who were filmed releasing prisoners in the Syrian prison said: ‘We celebrate with the Syrian people the news of the liberation of our prisoners and the letting go of their chains and the announcement of the end of the era of injustice in the Saydnaya prison.’
Omar Saoud, a local activist, said in a video: ‘Three floors underground there is a prison known as the red prison, it has not been opened yet.
“They can’t open it because it requires some mechanism, and the soldiers and officers who used to be here have left.”
Amnesty International research shows that Syrian authorities have committed crimes against humanity, killing, torturing and exterminating thousands of prisoners in the prison 30 km north of Damascus.
They found that the abuses committed over the past decade in the brutal facilities under dictator Bashar al Assad’s regime, which have resulted in the disappearance of more than 10,000 political prisoners, were part of an attack on civilians.
The release of thousands of prisoners has given new hope to families who have not heard from their loved ones for years.
Screenshots of released prisoners are circulating on WhatsApp groups across Syria, as family members do their best to identify familiar faces.