After his arrest, he was taken directly to the Palestine Branch. Four years passed before Umm Khaled found a small thread of hope. In 2017, she obtained a civil registry extract in Damascus confirming that he was still alive, while someone else told her that he was being held in the State Security Branch in Damascus. From that day on, her waiting became an entire life suspended between hope and fear.

At the dawn of December 8 of last year, following the fall of the Assad regime, she rushed to the massive gates of Sednaya Prison north of the capital, holding a photo of her son, hoping she could finally embrace him after his long absence.

But when she arrived that cold morning, amid crowds of people searching for their loved ones, she walked up the road leading to the cells with heavy steps, her eyes filled with hope. The doors opened before her — but her son was not among those emerging from the dark, frigid cells.

About a month later, she visited Sednaya Prison again to attend a commemoration ceremony for the prison’s victims. There, the investigative team met her once more, still holding her son’s photograph, whispering words laden with sorrow as she showed his picture to anyone who might see it — hoping someone might remember him, or might have seen him somewhere inside that prison.

With tears in her eyes, she said: “Unfortunately, my son did not come out alive… Those who survived that prison can be counted on one hand.”

​​According to Veronica Bellintani, Head of the International Law Support Unit at the Syrian Legal Development Programme (SDLP), execution orders in Sednaya Prison were issued and carried out by secret field committees that provided no minimum guarantees of due process.

She explains: “The executions carried out inside Sednaya Prison clearly fall within the scope of crimes against humanity and conflict-related crimes, given their systematic and widespread nature, and their connection to repressive policies pursued by the Syrian authorities against civilians.”

According to information reviewed by the investigative team, at least 15,347 execution sentences were carried out in Sednaya between 2011 and 2021, based on rulings issued by the Military Field Court.

The documents and information reviewed by the investigative team reveal the formation of execution committees whose purpose was to end the lives of prisoners by hanging, with special teams assigned to carry out these executions inside the prison.

On September 16, 2019, 18 detainees lost their lives; they were from Damascus, Daraa, and Aleppo. On September 3, 2020, 29 people were executed, including Tunisians, Iraqis, and Saudis. The gallows were also erected on July 30, November 12, and December 10, 2020, as well as January 19, 2021, to execute groups ranging from four to twenty-eight people at a time.

After the fall of the Syrian regime and the opening of the prison gates, an intense debate emerged among Syrians—especially the families of the victims—about who was responsible for these executions. There has been, and still remains, a strong desire to uncover the chain of command behind the execution orders, and to identify the individuals involved, whose names have long been shrouded in secrecy inside one of the most secretive prisons in the world.

This investigation seeks to answer that question.

Once a death sentence is issued by the Military Field Court, a closed chain of secret procedures begins. According to documents reviewed by the investigation team, these procedures are overseen by what can be described as a hierarchical apparatus composed of two main levels, each with a distinct committee.

At the first level is the “Central Committee”, also referred to as the “Supervisory Committee”, which carries out tasks at the national level on behalf of the state and oversees the general planning and implementation of execution decisions.

At the second level is the “Execution Committee”, which is responsible for carrying out the sentences on the ground inside the prison. Among survivors, this committee is known as the “Chain Committee”, in reference to the chain used to bind the victims’ legs as they are led to the execution chamber to meet their fate.

Orders establishing these committees are issued by the commander of the First Military Prison— the official designation for Saydnaya Prison— whose approval appears only in the form of a signature, without a name.

After reviewing the formation orders of the named committees and examining them, the SIRAJ unit assembled a team to track members of the two execution committees listed in the documents, using analysis of official records, cross-referencing survivor testimonies, and open-source intelligence techniques.

The investigation team and the open-source unit were able to trace 27 individuals whose names appeared in the documents. Some of them remain inside Syria, while others are believed to have left the country.

In addition to the names of the execution committee members, the information collected includes: their dates of birth, social media accounts—particularly Facebook—photographs of them in both military and civilian attire, and images showing them with well-known figures associated with Saydnaya Prison. Some were previously photographed alongside Aws Salloum, known by the nickname “The Angel of Death of Saydnaya.”

One member of the 2020 execution committee (the “Chain Committee”), identified as “Ahmad A.”, is currently residing outside Syria and moving freely within Turkish territory.

On his Facebook account, he shared a post showing that he traveled from Istanbul to the southern city of Mersin on November 2, 2022.

He also appears in photos he claims were taken at the port of Odesa, Ukraine, on October 18, 2022. Before that, on September 20, 2022, he asked his friends and followers to wish him success on a trip to Egypt. Earlier posts show him in military uniform, wearing the Military Police insignia on his arm, inside the prison grounds.

Many other photos show members of the execution committees in their everyday lives— sitting in cafés, at private gatherings, or on the beach —while others are engaged in different professions. One example is a dentist who now works at a charitable association in the village of Beit Yashout in Latakia province, offering free medical services.

The investigation team worked to cross-match the names and images of members of the two execution committees across a wide range of open sources, despite their dispersion and differing natures, in order to accurately verify the identities of the individuals.

To strengthen the verification process, the team consulted Syrian researcher Hussam Jazmati, who spent years documenting the social media accounts of officers and personnel at Saydnaya Military Prison, including several members of the execution committees.

Jazmati maintains a well-documented archive that intersects with the work of Syrian organizations specializing in the cases of detainees and their families. A comparison between his findings and those of the investigation team showed a 100% exact match in names and photographs.

In addition, we contacted a military doctor whose name appeared in one of the execution committees under investigation. He was able to identify the faces and names of many of the other committee members—his colleagues—on the same committee.

This testimony, being the first of its kind, served as a final and decisive confirmation for the investigation team in verifying and identifying the members of the execution committee.

“In Absolute Secrecy”: The Structure of the Execution Committees

The investigation into the execution committees began when the team obtained copies of official documents indicating the formation of a supervisory committee responsible for carrying out execution rulings. The committee was composed of at least three members:
The Deputy President of the Military Court, a forensic doctor, and an officer from the Military Police.

Executions at Saydnaya Prison are carried out on a weekly basis. Between 20 and 50 detainees are taken to the gallows without prior notice; they are not informed of the execution date. Instead, they are transferred at night and executed either that same night or early the next morning, before dawn.

The operation is overseen by senior security and military officials, including the head of the prison’s security office, the prison director, the military prosecutor of the Field Court, the commander of the Syrian Army’s Southern Region, an officer from the Military Intelligence Directorate, and the head of Branch 248 (the Investigations Branch), in addition to a forensic doctor from Tishreen Military Hospital. In some cases, a religious cleric is brought in to provide a veneer of religious legitimacy to the executions.

This committee handles the official (state) supervision of the executions, documenting the process and confirming the deaths, all in the absence of any independent oversight or civilian legal supervision.

The actual execution is carried out by the Execution Committee at 4:00 a.m., inside the First Military Prison building.

The execution report is then submitted to the Command of the Southern Region of the Syrian Army, with an explicit note stating that it is carried out “based on the order of the Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Minister of Defense.” This indicates that the orders are not local, but are directly tied to the leadership of the regime—and therefore to Bashar al-Assad himself.

Marwan Al-Ash, from the Syrian Detainees and Detainees’ Council (SDC), explains that executions are carried out in a routine, rigid, and highly secretive manner. The names of those to be executed are summoned by the judge of the Military Field Court, following a chain of approvals that begins with the Director of the Military Judiciary and ends with the Minister of Defense acting on behalf of the President. This process applies to Syrian, Arab, and foreign detainees alike.

Convicts are separated from the rest of the prisoners 48 hours prior to execution and transferred to an “isolation room” in the Red Building, where they are deprived of food and subjected to intense torture. Later, the group is transported at night to the White Building in a closed truck, under violent procedures that include beatings, blindfolding, and shackling with chains.

According to Al-Ash: “Executions are carried out by hanging, in batches of seven. The bodies are suspended and then dropped, and left in a side room, sometimes for days, before being moved to the prison’s outer courtyard to await a truck or refrigerated vehicle that transports them to mass graves.”

From Blindfolding to the Noose

All documents issued by Saydnaya Prison regarding execution orders contain the same directive: that executions must be carried out under strict secrecy.
Each document specifically names an officer or assistant tasked with carrying out the order, with explicit instructions emphasizing absolute confidentiality.

Secret documents from Saydnaya Prison from 2019 and 2020 list dozens of officers and conscripts, each assigned precise duties within the execution system.

Each committee consists of between 14 and 16 guards and commanding personnel. Their duties include: blindfolding prisoners before removal from their cells, fastening restraints, confirming identities, preparing the execution chamber and the noose, and medically documenting the death.

Often, the documents identify an officer or assistant assigned to “carry out the order in complete secrecy at the specified time and place.” They are signed by the Director of Saydnaya Prison and countersigned by a junior military doctor serving on the committee.

Although the identity of the prison director is often obscured, numerous sources—including the Syrian Network for Human Rights—indicate that the directors of Saydnaya Prison during 2019–2020, the period covered by the documents obtained by the investigation team, were Colonel Wasim Suleiman Hassan, followed by Brigadier General Osama Mohammed Al-Ali.

Colonel Wasim Hassan, from rural Latakia, served as prison director from 2017 until 2020, when he was replaced by Brigadier General Osama Al-Ali, from rural Tartus, who remained in the position until the fall of the Assad regime.

In one order dated January 16, 2020, the name “Assistant Yazan M.” (listed in the execution documents) appears as the individual tasked with blindfolding detainees before execution. In another document, the signature of “Amer T.”, a dentist, appears in his capacity as the medical officer accompanying the execution committee.

Regarding leadership responsibility, Belintani explains that “execution orders signed by senior officials, bearing their names and signatures, may constitute strong evidence of their knowledge of the executions, their contribution to the criminal process, and the existence of a systematic policy behind these acts.” This, she says, could therefore allow for their criminal liability under international criminal law.

From the Death Chamber to Television Screens

Each execution committee is assigned, by order of the prison director, the task of carrying out death sentences—though individual roles may vary.

For example, assistants “Mudar A.” and “Yazan M.”, according to the official formation orders of the execution committees in 2019 and 2020, were tasked with blindfolding detainees prior to mass executions.

However, Mudar A. also had an additional role: he was responsible for receiving the bodies of executed detainees when they were returned from military hospitals.

The investigation team reviewed three documents listing execution committees for 2019, 2020, and 2021, respectively, and found several repeated names, indicating a stable structural pattern in how personnel were assigned.

Among the recurring names are conscript “Mohammad M.” and sergeant Ramadan Al-Issa, both of whom appeared on multiple committees. Al-Issa recently appeared in a video released by the Syrian Ministry of Interior, in which he confessed to crimes committed during his service in Saydnaya Prison.

The documents also reveal promotion pathways for some committee members, suggesting a direct link between participation in executions and career advancement. For instance, “Yazan S.” served as a corporal on the 2019 and 2020 execution committees, before being promoted to sergeant and appearing again on the 2021 committee.

The investigation team contacted 12 members of the execution committees via messaging platforms such as Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp to verify their identities and confirm their roles.

Conscript “Amjad A.” denied his identity entirely, claimed to be someone else, then blocked the reporter on Facebook and changed the name of his account.

The second individual who responded was Lieutenant Dentist “Amer T.”, whose name appears on the 2020 execution committee.

Another member, also a dentist whose name appears on the 2019 committee, also responded and provided critical acknowledgements, on the condition that his name not be disclosed.

Both doctors stated that they were performing compulsory military service at Saydnaya at the time. They also said they contacted the new Syrian authorities immediately after arriving in Damascus.

The first doctor, Amer T., denied that his role involved examining bodies after execution. Instead, he claimed his task was only to examine the health condition and readiness of military personnel involved in the execution process, not the detainees themselves.

The doctor whose name appeared on the 2020 execution committee confirmed that he was serving his mandatory military service as a dentist at Saydnaya Prison. Although he insisted that he was “not allowed to know any information regarding the implementation of executions,” he nevertheless provided detailed accounts of the military personnel on the execution team whom he examined and recognized from photographs. He recalled all of their identities, including First Assistant “Diaa A.”, Corporal “Yazan S.”, conscript “Ahmad A.”, conscript “Mohammad M.”, conscript “Elias H.”, and conscript “Zakaria H.”. He also identified additional individuals involved in the executions, such as conscript “Khedr Q.” and “Hayan D.”

(All of these names were listed in the official documents that formed the execution committee.

He explained that, to his knowledge, executions were carried out in the presence of personnel from Military Intelligence, the regional military commander, judges from the Military Field Court, and a forensic doctor from the military hospital.

When asked how he felt about examining military personnel prior to executions, he said: “I did not choose to be in that place, and if I had been given a choice, I would not have accepted it. Of course, it was disturbing, but I cannot speak of regret because a doctor is supposed to serve the community away from chaos — especially since I did not know the crime committed or the circumstances of the case.”

He claimed that death sentences were only carried out in cases of murder, while what he described as “ordinary violations” resulted in fixed prison terms or, at times, pardons.

However, dozens of documents signed in the name of the Commander-in-Chief (Bashar al-Assad) show that most of those executed were civilians arrested on security-related grounds, including students, women, and former conscripts, contradicting the testimony of Amer T.

A document reviewed by the investigation team from the Syrian Revolution Archive reveals an order issued by former Defense Minister Ali Abdullah Ayoub, acting on behalf of Bashar al-Assad, to execute 18 individuals on charges of “incitement to terrorism” or “committing terrorist acts,” with the executions to be carried out in Saydnaya Prison. The document details the full structure and procedures of the execution process — and is one of many examined by the investigative team.

The dentist also denied that any political detainees had been executed in Saydnaya Prison, claiming that he was “99% certain” that those who were executed had committed murder or “horrific massacres.”

He continued defending Saydnaya’s practices, stating: “It is impossible for anyone to be admitted to the prison without a judicial order.”

When asked about the families who lost their children in Saydnaya—families who dug through the prison grounds searching for their loved ones after the fall of the regime—he attributed this to “misleading media propaganda,” insisting that “it is impossible for anyone to be imprisoned without having committed a crime.”

He added: “Political detainees may have disappeared in security branches,” noting that political detainees are tried in civilian courts, where—according to him—no violations leading to execution occur.

This claim ignores well-documented facts and reports issued by human rights organizations and United Nations bodies confirming that thousands of political detainees in Syria were subjected to summary trials before Military Field Courts or the Counter-Terrorism Court, without due process, and that their families were never informed of their deaths. No national or international entity was allowed access to Saydnaya or other prisons of the former regime until its collapse.

This is also emphasized by Syrian lawyer Hala Ibrahim, a member of the Syrian Free Lawyers Association, who has been closely following the Saydnaya executions while working with a rights organization in Syria. She stresses that the rulings issued by the Military Field Court violated not only international law, but also the Syrian Constitution in force at the time, which guaranteed the right to a fair trial in Article 28—conditions entirely absent from these show trials, which relied on confessions extracted under torture.

For his part, dentist Amer T. told reporters that three days after Syria was liberated, he was contacted by the “Military Operations Directorate” for information regarding the prison’s layout. He claimed that he cooperated, providing them with full details, and explained that he was a conscripted doctor serving mandatory service at Saydnaya. He added, “Brigadier Abu Khaled contacted me from a private number and asked for help to determine whether there were secret tunnels inside the prison. They assured me of my safety, and I explained the structure to them. They also offered me financial compensation for the information, but I refused.”

For its part, the Syrian Ministry of Interior denied the dentists’ statements about their alleged communication with the “Military Operations Room” after the fall of the regime, calling their account “false,” intended to defame the government and evade responsibility for violations.

Ministry spokesperson Noureddine Al-Babba stated: “The number of those implicated in the violations at Saydnaya Prison reaches into the hundreds, and the Ministry is working to bring all of them to justice. We are exerting all efforts to apprehend those involved.”

He added that some have not yet been brought to trial because they are either in hiding inside Syria or have fled abroad, noting that many others are currently detained pending further investigation.

In the same context, lawyer Hala Ibrahim believes that the transitional government’s approach to accountability and transitional justice remains framed through a political or security lens. She stresses that this file requires a comprehensive legal and rights-based approach, making clear that accountability is not an act of revenge, but a legal process in the interest of Syrian society.

The second doctor at Saydnaya Prison, whose name appeared on the execution committee formed in 2019, hesitated to speak with us for weeks before eventually agreeing—on the condition that his name not be published, out of fear of extrajudicial killings. He explained that he was “a doctor for judicial detainees, performing mandatory military service.”

He clarified that his role in the execution committee began after the sentence had already been carried out.

According to him, the Military Medical Services Administration transported the bodies from the execution chamber to the small clinic where he worked inside Saydnaya Prison, so that he could “check vital signs” and confirm death.

He began his service at Military Hospital 601 and was later transferred to Saydnaya.

He stated, “I confirmed the deaths of people who had been executed by hanging twice. The first time was a group of 17–18 detainees brought to me after the execution. I simply confirmed their deaths, and then the Medical Services Administration handled the burial.”

The second case involved a civilian prisoner convicted of murder and rape under a civilian court ruling. He noted that civilian death sentences were also carried out in Saydnaya Prison.

He explained that during executions, a committee from outside the prison would be brought in to carry out the hanging, while the Medical Services Administration was responsible for the execution and burial procedures, “after presenting the executed individuals to me to confirm death.”

He emphasized that people from outside the prison were present during the executions, underscoring the role of the supervisory committee.

He added, “I spent a year in Saydnaya. The execution system had been in place for ten years.”

The doctor described himself as “the lowest-ranked person in a large military hierarchy,” stating that he only received orders to confirm death and that his role came after the execution had already taken place.

Execution Battalions Led by Doctors

On May 1, 2021, what became known as “execution battalions” were formed inside Saydnaya Prison. Each battalion consisted of eight members, including an assistant named “Iyad A.” and a doctor assigned to supervise executions named “Lujain M.” The mention of the doctor is particularly significant: documents reviewed in cooperation with Zaman al-Wasl do not refer to forensic doctors, but rather to specialist physicians—such as ophthalmologists or dentists—who were brought into execution teams. This raises serious questions about the nature of the role they were expected to play.

A document dating back to 2022 concerning “financial rewards” for members of these battalions reinforces the credibility of their existence and function within the prison. Records indicate that in 2021 alone, more than eight execution battalions were formed in Saydnaya, involving approximately 90 individuals—officers, soldiers, and doctors—some of whom were brought in from the Military Police outside the prison to accommodate the high volume of executions.

However, according to Veronica Belintani of the Syrian Legal Development Program: “Medical personnel who participate in documenting, facilitating, or supervising executions bear criminal responsibility under international criminal law.”

She adds:“Their involvement—whether active or passive—may lead to individual liability for war crimes and crimes against humanity, depending on the circumstances of their participation.”

The Execution Platform

On the morning of December 8, a young man named Ghazi Al-Muhammad was scheduled to be executed alongside 54 other detainees inside Saydnaya Prison. But just hours before the sentence was carried out, the prison garrison fled following the collapse of the regime and Bashar al-Assad’s escape to Moscow. Ghazi survived the execution, while the gallows had already claimed the lives of thousands before him.

And although Ghazi was given a second chance at life, thousands before him were not as fortunate. Among them were the brother of Hayat Al-Turki and five of her relatives. Despite spending four days inside Saydnaya after the prison was opened—searching desperately for any trace of them—she found nothing. She believes they were executed.

What she found instead was silence, emptiness, and the remnants of those who died without a witness and without a grave.

The escape and disappearance of members of the execution committees—those responsible for the killings of hundreds of prisoners—have shattered Hayat’s remaining hope of learning the fate of her loved ones, or of seeing their jailers held accountable during Syria’s transitional justice process.

Inside the Execution Chamber at Saydnaya

The investigation team was able to inspect what is known as the “execution chamber.” The room is located on the lower level of what is referred to as the “White Building” within the Saydnaya Military Prison complex, specifically behind a burned door overlooking the southeastern courtyard of the facility. Its entrance leads to a short staircase of three or four steps, opening into a narrow corridor lined with small cells that once held prisoners awaiting execution.

At the end of the corridor lies the main chamber, which over the years was transformed into a site of mass hangings. Burn marks are still visible on the walls and on the metal bunk beds. Two wooden platforms used for executions remain in place, each preceded by a short set of three steps — exactly as depicted in the architectural diagrams documented by international human rights organizations.

Field evidence indicates that prisoners were led onto these platforms to be suspended from the ceiling, where executioners would pull down on their bodies to accelerate death by breaking the neck. Charred markings and remnants of metal execution ropes attest to the intensive use of the room, which now stands as a silent witness to one of the most systematic and brutal episodes of violence in the prisons of the former Syrian regime.

When Will the Execution Squads Be Prosecuted?

In 2017, a report by Amnesty International documenting mass executions and extermination at Saydnaya Prison concluded that the bodies of detainees who were executed or who died under torture and in inhumane detention conditions were buried in mass graves. One of these sites was visited by the investigation team after the fall of the regime in December 2024.

The executions and enforced disappearances were not isolated acts, but rather a systematic policy overseen by the highest levels of the Assad regime’s security and military leadership.

Fadel Abdul Ghany, director of the Syrian Network for Human Rights, states: “These crimes require international legal accountability under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, as they constitute crimes against humanity and war crimes.”

Regarding the possibility of prosecution, Veronica Belintani emphasizes that: “Universal jurisdiction allows European states to prosecute perpetrators even if the crimes did not occur on their territory, provided sufficient evidence exists and the suspects are within their jurisdiction.”

All official documents related to execution orders were signed by Field Marshal Bashar al-Assad as Commander-in-Chief, and delegated to General Ali Abdullah Ayoub, Minister of Defense. According to international legal experts, this constitutes prima facie evidence of the leadership’s knowledge of, and direct involvement in, the executions.

Refrigeration Room and Mass Graves That Swallow the Evidence

In the dim corridor leading to the refrigeration room on the prison’s lower level, the personal belongings and clothing of detainees are scattered alongside used military blankets. Orange execution uniforms in various sizes—small (S), medium (M), and large (XL)—are strewn across the floor, in the corners, and on the metal steps leading into the chamber.

When the investigation team visited the site in February, the cold winter air added an extra layer of chill to the atmosphere of the refrigeration room, which had been hastily constructed inside the prison to cope with the rising pace of executions and the accumulation of bodies.

A “request memorandum” issued in April 2014 by the Military Police Commander, Major General Akram Salloum Al-Abdullah, shows a request to establish a room for storing the bodies of deceased detainees inside the prison, with a capacity of no less than fifty bodies, due to difficulties in transferring them to hospitals.

The memorandum was submitted directly to the Chief of Staff at the time, General Ali Abdullah Ayoub, who signed it with approval, indicating once again that senior leadership was aware of these practices — and authorized them.

Aya Majzoub, Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International, states: “Extrajudicial executions and killings carried out through summary procedures constitute grave violations of international human rights law, and may amount to crimes against humanity when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population, pursuant to a state or organizational policy to carry out such an ‘attack’ or to further that policy.”

According to Amnesty International, the application of the death penalty in Syria violates international human rights standards, specifically Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which restricts the death penalty to “the most serious crimes” and requires that it only be imposed following a fair trial.

By examining official documents from Saydnaya Military Prison, the Syrian Detainees and Detainees’ Councilconcluded that the number of death sentences carried out inside the prison against detainees from the revolution reached 15,347 executions, issued solely by the Military Field Court and the Counter-Terrorism Court—not including deaths resulting from torture, medical neglect, or disease, which are estimated to be several times higher.

Rituals of Mass Death

Mohammad Fares and Adnan are among eight former prisoners interviewed by SIRAJ who were released from Saydnaya. Fares provided the investigation team with a list of 65 individuals executed in July 2021.

Fares was sentenced to death without ever appearing in court.
He says: “I survived execution only after my family paid $100,000 to have the sentence reduced to life imprisonment.”
He adds:
“Everything in Saydnaya Prison was for sale — even lives.”

Marwan Al-Ash, a member of the Syrian Detainees and Detainees’ Council, explains: “Everything is carried out under strict secrecy. Bodies are not returned to families, and no burial ceremonies are allowed. Death is recorded on paper, and the bodies are buried in the ground without a trace.”

According to Al-Ash’s estimates, 300,000 people were forcibly disappeared for security-related reasons in Syria between 2011 and 2024. Around 90,000 detainees are believed to have entered Saydnaya Prison, while no more than 4,200 are estimated to have survived.

Media advisor at the National Commission for the Missing, Zeina Shahla, explains that the Commission does not yet have consolidated estimates regarding the number of missing persons in the prison, as it is still in the early stages of establishing its foundational framework. She notes that the Commission is responsible for uncovering the fate of the missing across all detention sites—including Saydnaya—using documents, collective interviews, and various documentation methods.

In May of last year, the new Syrian government established a state-level National Commission for the Missing, an independent Syrian body tasked with determining the fate of tens of thousands of disappeared and forcibly disappeared individuals in the country, and ensuring justice for their families.

The Hidden Role of Doctors in Concealing Evidence

The violations against victims of execution at Saydnaya did not end when they fell from the gallows. The abuse continued after death, through a complex system designed to hide the truth and erase identities. After executions, the bodies were transferred to military hospitals, where they were reduced to numbers in official registers that concealed the real crimes.

Official documents reviewed by the investigation team reveal the involvement of doctors and officers at Tishreen Military Hospital in Damascus in receiving dozens of bodies transferred from security branches and prisons. They routinely recorded false causes of death, such as “cardiac arrest” or “heart failure,” while the true cause was execution by hanging.

One of the key figures appearing in the documents is Brigadier General Dr. Ismail Jadallah Kiwan. Documents covering a period of less than four months in 2016 show that he received more than 82 bodies of detainees and recorded the cause of death in almost all cases as “sudden cardiac arrest.”

The documents also show that, in the same period, Kiwan received 746 detainees in critical condition due to torture, most of whom remain unaccounted for. Given that these documents represent only a small window within his 14-year tenure, sources estimate that the total number of detainees and bodies he handled could exceed 10,000.

Kiwan’s role was not limited to Tishreen Hospital. The documents also link him directly to the numbering of bodies at Military Hospital 601, one of the central facilities for receiving and processing the victims of torture in Damascus.

With the fall of the regime on December 8, 2024, Kiwan fled the hospital, leaving behind a record saturated with evidence of systematic medical complicity in one of the most extensive, organized efforts to conceal crimes in modern Syrian history.

The investigation team examined the logbook of Tishreen Military Hospital in Damascus, which contains lists of detainees transferred from security branches. Next to the name of each detainee who arrived deceased, only the word “body” (جثة) was written—without any reference to the cause or circumstances of death—reflecting a deliberate attempt to erase evidence and conceal the truth.

The records also included the names of several doctors and nurses suspected of involvement in these procedures, including the hospital director Moufid Darwish, forensic doctor Akram Al-Shaar, and other medical and administrative personnel who either documented the cases or supervised the receipt of bodies.

Contributors:
Omar Al-Bam contributed to this investigation
Creative coordination and visual design: Radwan Awad

The editorial team at SIRAJ has withheld the full names of members of the execution squads at Saydnaya Prison, and faces have been blurred, in order to protect the public interest and prevent any extrajudicial retaliation, in line with the principles of transitional justice in Syria.

The post The ‘Chain Committees’: SIRAJ Uncovers the Secret Execution Squads in Sednaya Prison and Interviews Their Members appeared first on SIRAJ.

Investigation by Ali Al Ibrahim and Mohamad Skaf

---

For seven years, the family of the child Sariah, who disappeared after his arrest in 2011 in Hama, held onto the hope of seeing him again. Sariah was 15 years old at the time of his arrest, detained along with many minors (under the age of 18) who were held without trial and later transferred to the Military Field Courts, where they were subject to extraordinary procedures in violation of both international and Syrian legal standards.

The child’s mother and siblings live in constant fear, especially after Syrian President Bashar al-Assad issued a decree on September 3, 2023, ending the work of the Military Field Courts, which had handled Sariah’s case.

The family’s worry intensifies as they fear that their son’s fate has been forgotten, particularly amidst the grave violations Syria has witnessed over the years, including mass executions and enforced disappearances affecting a significant number of children and detainees.

The new decree terminates Legislative Decree No. 109 of 1968 and its amendments, which established the Military Field Courts responsible for cases falling under military jurisdiction during wartime, according to the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA). All cases in those courts will now be transferred as they are to the military judiciary for prosecution, according to the Penal Code and the Code of Military Procedure, established by Legislative Decree No. 61 of 1950 and its amendments.

The now-abolished decree had granted the Military Field Courts broad powers, including the ability to disregard procedural rules in existing legislation, with their rulings not subject to any form of appeal.

Twenty-four Children, Victims of Deferred Executions

On April 24, 2018, Sariah’s aunt Basmah, an employee at the civil registry in Syria, received mail from the Syrian Ministry of Interior containing a list of detainees documented as deceased (whether executed or due to torture), which included Sariah’s name, with his date of death recorded as April 14, 2014.

“I never imagined I’d have to inform my family that my sister’s son had died. I had promised him I would help him obtain his ID card from the civil registry and had always waited for his return. I always believed that since he was a child, there was no way they would harm or kill him; even the lawyer assured us of that,” she told the investigative team. “Sariah was a child when he was arrested, and his mother used to accuse me of lying when I told her that her beloved son was still alive. I should have been honest and told her that the monsters didn’t let him live.”

Sariah’s name appeared on a list obtained by the investigative team, which included the names of 25 Syrian children later transferred to Military Field Courts and sentenced to execution, in addition to the confiscation of their movable and immovable assets, despite their minor status at the time of arrest.

Through a team of investigative journalists and researchers, the team was able to confirm the deaths of 24 out of the 25 names on a list that exclusively included children under 18 at the time of their arrest (18 children from Hama, 3 from Homs, 2 from Idlib, and one each from Aleppo and Daraa) following execution orders issued by the Military Field Courts.

The investigative team obtained a list containing the full personal details of each child, including their full name, mother’s name and surname, date and place of birth, date of execution ruling, and national identification number. However, the list did not indicate whether the sentences had been carried out.

This investigative report uncovers a punitive approach employed by Syrian security forces following the detention of minors. Children were held without trial until they reached the legal age of 18, at which point they were transferred to Military Field Courts. Additionally, the Syrian regime used illegal methods to issue death sentences for detained minors under the Anti-Terrorism Law (No. 19 of 2012).

The investigative team relied on open sources, such as social media posts, groups focused on tracking the forcibly disappeared in Syrian regime detention centers, and exclusive interviews with the victims’ families. Through these sources, the team confirmed that all individuals listed in the report were forcibly disappeared by Syrian regime forces and security agencies. Contact with the families of these individuals further confirmed that all names on the list belonged to minors under 18 at the time of their detention.

To determine the fate of those named on the list, the team obtained death records from civil registries under the Ministry of Interior in several Syrian provinces. These records revealed that 24 individuals on the list had died and confirmed that they were children at the time of their detention.

How Are These Matters Legally Pursued?
The Juvenile Delinquents Act No. 18 of 1974 and its amendments govern juvenile cases, defining a juvenile as any person under 18 years of age (Article 1). According to the Syrian Legal Development Program, the detention of children in Syrian prisons without trial until they reach the legal age to be transferred to the Field Court and subsequently executed violates children’s rights under both Syrian and international law.
International law prohibits the imposition of the death penalty or life imprisonment on individuals under 18. This prohibition is upheld by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Article 6, paragraph 5) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (Article 37, paragraph a), which also prohibits life imprisonment without the possibility of release.
In the context of armed conflict, the death penalty for children is prohibited under Article 68 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, Article 77, paragraph 5, of Additional Protocol I, and Article 6, paragraph 4, of Additional Protocol II. Violating this prohibition could constitute a war crime.

The team also managed to locate the sole survivor named in the list, obtaining documents that prove his trial in a Military Field Court, as well as documenting his testimony and those of the families of other victims, some of which are included in this report.

The investigative team expanded its witness and source network to strengthen the story and understand how the cases of 24 forcibly disappeared Syrian children came to be recorded as “deceased” in Syria’s civil registries. The team acquired specific documents and testimonies from personnel within the Syrian Military Police, under the Ministry of Defense, who were active during the detention and execution of these victims.

Moreover, the team consulted with legal experts and Syrian human rights organizations, such as the Syrian Legal Development Program and the Syrian Network for Human Rights, to obtain a legal interpretation of the implications of detaining these children and later recording them as deceased.

How Did Underage Sariah End Up in a Military Field Court?

Sariah’s case is just one among dozens of Syrian children who were detained, transferred to Military Field Courts, and subsequently executed upon reaching the legal age. This reveals a covert strategy adopted by Syrian security forces since the outbreak of protests in March 2011: detaining minors without official records and shelving their files within security branches until they reach legal age, at which point they could be executed under Syrian law.

According to Mohannad Sharabati, the legal advisor of the Support Unit at the Syrian Legal Development Program (SLDP), “Referring detainees to Military Field Courts clearly reflects the absence of rule of law in Syria. The executive branch, represented by the head of the regime, has complete control over the legislative and judicial branches, leading to the enforcement of exceptional laws and courts that do not adhere to international legal standards, such as the Military Field Courts.”

An informant who spent three years of his mandatory military service in the Military Police, responsible for transferring detainees, their files, and correspondence from the “security compound” in the Kafr Sousa neighborhood of Damascus to Saydnaya prison and other locations, told the investigative team that he witnessed over 6,000 cases of detainees under the age of 18 who were issued death sentences.

What Are Security Compounds?
The term “security compound” refers to specific areas in various parts of Syria under the control of Syrian regime forces. These compounds are typically located in the heart of cities, where government buildings and security headquarters are concentrated. For instance, there is a security compound in the Kafr Sousa neighborhood in Damascus, which houses notorious security branches, such as Branch 215 (run by Military Intelligence), often referred to by former detainees as the “Death Branch,” and Branch 227, as well as the Military Records Directorate. Another security compound is located in the Rawda neighborhood in central Damascus, where the Syrian National Security Administration building is surrounded by military checkpoints and security detachments.

The source, who requested anonymity for security reasons, explained, “From 2014 until the end of 2017, during my service in the Military Police in Damascus, part of our duties under the Ministry of Defense involved transporting detainees, their files, and correspondence from the security compound in Damascus to Saydnaya Prison and the Dimas Court [one of the Military Field Courts], as well as back and forth between Saydnaya and Dimas. During this period, executions were at nearly their highest levels. I personally witnessed and transported over 6,000 detainees brought to the security compound in Damascus, aged between 15 and 17.”

The source continued, “While they were held in this compound, they turned 18 or 19 years old. Afterward, they were sentenced to death by the Military Field Court.” He added, “This number represents only what I witnessed during my work, not counting other individuals in the Military Police assigned to similar tasks.”

The detention of minors and their subsequent death sentences occurred during the tenure of Judge Mohammad Kanjo Hassan, who presided over the Military Field Court from December 2013 until January 2023.

Who is Major Mohammad Kanjo Hassan
Born in Tartus on January 1, 1959, Mohammad Kanjo Hassan comes from a family with strong ties to the Syrian military and security agencies.
He obtained a law degree from Damascus University and subsequently joined the ranks of the Syrian Army and Armed Forces. Rising through the positions within the Military Judiciary under the Ministry of Defense, he became the Deputy Military Prosecutor at the Military Field Court in Damascus with the rank of Brigadier General at the onset of the popular protests against the Syrian regime in March 2011.
In December 2013, he was promoted to Major General and appointed as the President of the Military Field Court in Damascus, later becoming the Head of the Military Judiciary. He remained in this role until his retirement on January 1, 2023.
Hassan has been accused by families of Field Court victims and human rights organizations of involvement in issuing and carrying out thousands of death sentences during his time presiding over the court. He is believed to have played a key role in suppressing anti-regime protests and signing death sentences against military defectors.
In December 2023, his name was added to the sanctions list issued by the British Foreign Office due to his involvement in severe human rights violations during his service.

Legalized Killing!

Sariah’s tragedy was echoed, albeit in a different way, with Khaled, who was arrested in October 2013 at the age of 16 from his home in Hama during a raid by Syrian regime forces accompanied by Military Security personnel. According to his father, the reason for the arrest was a case of mistaken identity.

Khaled had the same name as one of his cousins, who had been a Syrian army conscript before defecting and later becoming a commander in an armed opposition faction. Despite the clear differences in their identification cards, the young boy was detained and transferred to the Military Security Branch in Hama, where he was held for a month and a half.

After this period, he was transferred to Branch 215 of Military Intelligence in Damascus, notorious for its harsh conditions and systematic torture of detainees, according to human rights organizations. There, Khaled spent around a year and a half in arbitrary detention without any formal charges brought against him. He was later moved to Saydnaya Military Prison, one of Syria’s most notorious prisons, where detainees endure extreme forms of torture and medical neglect.

In Saydnaya, the Military Field Court in Dimas sentenced Khaled to death. However, the sentence was never carried out, as Khaled died beforehand from torture and severe respiratory illness caused by the inhumane detention conditions. According to released detainees who saw Khaled during his confinement, he was suffering from the effects of torture up until his final moments.

The Syrian Legal Development Program described the Military Field Courts as “exceeding international fair trial standards. They lack transparency and independence, issuing judgments without regard for the principles of fair trial outlined in international laws such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, thereby undermining the rights of the accused.”

Executions are carried out under Syria’s Penal Code (Law No. 48 of 1949), the Code of Criminal Procedure (Law No. 112 of 1950), and the Anti-Terrorism Law (Law No. 19 of 2012).

However, there is no legal basis for detaining children in Syrian prisons without trial until they reach the legal age to be transferred to Military Field Courts for execution, as attorney Mohannad Sharabati emphasized. He stated, “International law prohibits the imposition of the death penalty or life imprisonment on individuals under 18. Syrian law aligns with this prohibition and does not prescribe death or life sentences for offenses committed by minors.”

Sana (a pseudonym), a lawyer who has tirelessly but unsuccessfully pursued Sariah’s case unofficially for the past seven years, confirmed this point. She explained that lawyers hesitate to take on such cases due to fear of retaliation from security agencies.

Sana told the investigative team: “Sariah was arrested when he was under 18, which means he should have been tried in juvenile courts, which are civil, not military. Even if we assume the investigation records and list of charges were accurate, and even if he received a death sentence, it should have been mitigated by the military prosecution under the Juvenile Delinquents Law (Law No. 18 of 1974 and its amendments), as he was a minor when the alleged offense was committed.”

Sana added that “security regulations prohibit holding individuals in security branches for more than 40 days without cause. How did Sariah end up spending all those years in detention, and how was he executed based on charges for actions he allegedly committed at 15? And what were these charges that justified execution? They killed Sariah outside the law but under the guise of the law.”

The Syrian Detainee Authority stated that “the Field Courts were exceptional, lacking any constitutional guarantees. Defendants standing before them were not allowed to present any defense, appoint a lawyer, or appeal any decision or sentence. Additionally, their proceedings were held in secrecy.”

The authority viewed these courts as “one of the tools through which the Syrian regime exercised its practice of killing since the beginning of its rule, using them to eliminate any dissenting voices. They also served as one of the intimidation mechanisms that have been in place since the beginning of the uprising, closely associated with the infamous Saydnaya Military Prison.”

A report by the Syrian Network for Human Rights, issued on September 12, documented that the Military Field Courts have issued 14,843 death sentences from March 2011 until August 2023. Among those sentenced were 114 children and 26 women. Execution was carried out for 7,872 individuals, including 2,021 military personnel. Their bodies were not returned to their families, nor were their families officially notified of the executions.

Fifty-five Years of Sham Trials

The roots of the Military Field Courts in Syria trace back to the period following the June 1967 war with Israel, specifically to 1968 when these courts were established. They were designed to handle crimes under military jurisdiction, referred to them by order of the Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Armed Forces (the President), and committed during times of war and military operations.

The court is formed by a decision of the Minister of Defense and consists of a president and two military members, where the president’s rank is no lower than Major, and each member’s rank is no lower than Captain.

Decree No. 109 of 1968 granted these courts extensive powers, including the ability to disregard traditional legal procedures ensuring a fair trial, and their verdicts were not subject to appeal.

Since 1980, under the rule of Hafez al-Assad, the father of the current president, these courts have expanded their powers to include civilians, significantly increasing the number of victims. For over 55 years, the courts have played a central role in issuing death sentences and carrying out enforced disappearances, especially after the outbreak of popular protests in 2011. These courts became “symbols of repression and fear, leaving behind a legacy filled with crimes and violations,” according to a report by Amnesty International.

Amnesty described the Field Courts as operating “outside the boundaries of the Syrian legal system.” A former judge in the courts stated, “The judge only asks the detainee for their name and whether they committed the crime or not, and the detainee will be convicted regardless of the answer.”

The organization added, “Detainees face sham judicial procedures before their execution, lasting no more than a minute or two… These procedures are so brief and arbitrary that they cannot be considered legitimate judicial processes.” The procedures have been described as “a farce… ending with the detainees being executed by hanging.”

According to a source who worked within the military judiciary, Military Field Courts issue collective and in-absentia sentences without relying on charges or reviewing investigation reports. Instead, these rulings are based on security reports from officers, confessions extracted under torture within security branches, or recommendations from the “Five-member Committee.” Detainees are then transported from the security compound in Damascus (Kafr Sousa area) for processing, while their files are sent ahead to the Military Field Courts.

Furthermore, the Military Field Courts, according to this source, deny defendants the right to legal representation. Lawyers are granted no access to review case files.

According to legal experts consulted by the investigative team, following the abolition of the Military Field Courts, security agencies have begun referring detainees to military judiciary courts, the Counter-Terrorism Court, or civilian courts. The assessment and classification of the “crime” remain at the discretion of the security agencies, amidst a lack of judicial independence in both the military and civilian judiciary systems.

Survivor #25 Tells His Story

The investigative team managed to reach the sole survivor listed in the exclusive document, who holds the number 25.

Mustafa Kamal al-Khatib, now 28 years old and residing in Idlib, a region outside the Syrian regime’s control, agreed to an interview and shared the documents he possesses. His account sheds light on the treatment of detainees by Syrian security forces, especially minors who were sent to Military Field Courts.

Among the documents al-Khatib shared was a death sentence issued against him, later reduced to 12 years of hard labor after his family paid a sum of money. Al-Khatib provided his testimony through video and audio recordings, recounting the conditions he endured.

Al-Khatib explained that he was detained in 2013 while a ninth-grade student by Palestine Branch (Branch 235) and was subjected to multiple forms of torture, stating, “I endured all kinds of torture in Palestine Branch, both physical and sexual…”

He described how detainees were treated as mere numbers rather than individuals. His number was 95 in his cell, while his father, detained in another cell, was assigned the number 25, reflecting the dehumanizing approach of security branches toward detainees.

The young detainee spent a year and a month in Palestine Branch before being transferred to another branch. He explained that the security authorities altered his arrest date to avoid registering him as a minor, saying, “Before transferring me to Branch 248, they made me fingerprint documents without knowing their content… They changed my arrest date to make it appear that I was detained in 2014 instead of 2013.”

He added, “Throughout my transfers between various branches, including Palestine Branch, Branch 248, and Saydnaya Military Prison, I saw many juvenile detainees, aged 15 to 17. They were with me, and all were sentenced to death.”

Final Moments Before Execution

In testimonies on field executions in Syria, human rights organizations quoted a former guard at Saydnaya Prison, who revealed that up to 13,000 people were hanged at Saydnaya between September 2011 and December 2015. Before the execution sentence is issued, the victims undergo what Syrian authorities call a “trial” before the Military Field Court. In reality, this “trial” lasts no more than a minute or two, conducted in an office before a military officer, where the detainee’s name is recorded in the “death register.”

On the day of execution, referred to by prison guards as the “party,” those scheduled for execution are gathered from their cells in the afternoon. They are told they are being transferred to a civilian prison, which many believe has better conditions. However, instead, they are taken to a basement cell where they are severely beaten before being moved to the execution chamber.

In the execution room at Saydnaya Prison, rows of nooses line the wall. When entering the room, the victims’ eyes are blindfolded, so they are unaware that they are about to be executed. They are asked to place their fingerprints on documents recording their deaths. Afterward, they are led, still blindfolded, to concrete platforms where they are hanged. They don’t know how or when the execution will occur until the nooses are placed around their necks. Some detainees held in the upper floors of the execution building reported occasionally hearing the sounds of hangings.

At around three in the morning, members of the execution committee arrive from outside Saydnaya Prison to witness the executions. Regular committee members include the director of Saydnaya Prison, the military prosecutor from the Military Field Court, a representative from the intelligence services (typically from Military Intelligence), the commander of the brigade on the southern front, an officer from the military medical services at Tishreen Hospital, and the chief doctor at Saydnaya Prison. Each committee member is usually accompanied by one or two assistants or personal guards.

To this day, detainees continue to be transferred to Saydnaya Prison, and “trials” are still held at the Military Field Court in Qaboun. Therefore, there is no reason to believe that the executions have ceased.

Attorney Mohammad Othman stated: “The detention of minors in Syrian prisons and their transfer to Military Field Courts, where they are sentenced to death upon reaching adulthood, reveals severe violations of human rights and both international and Syrian law. These practices reflect the absence of justice and accountability in the Syrian judicial system, calling for urgent international action to hold those responsible accountable and to protect children’s rights.” He added that “the stories of these minors stand as painful testimonies to a grim reality that demands relentless efforts to achieve justice and end these ongoing violations.”

Today, al-Khatib recalls the details of his death sentence, despite being a minor at the time of his arrest, his eventual survival, and escape to northern Syria. He also remembers the names of some other children who were detained with him and executed at Saydnaya Prison, such as Qaddour Sobhi al-Hassan and Anwar al-Qatroun.

“Some detainees were fortunate,” he noted, “as they were able to secure their release by paying large sums of money, including my father, who paid around $45,000 (more than 650 million Syrian pounds) to secure my release, while other children face a delayed execution.”

---

This investigation was conducted by the Syrian Investigative Journalism Unit, SIRAJ. Edited by Manar al-Rashwani.

SIRAJ is committed to not publishing lists of names or specific information about sources at their request, due to concerns of retaliatory actions if disclosed.

The legal analysis for this investigation was provided by the Syrian Legal Development Program (SLDP) in London, United Kingdom.

The post Delayed Execution: The Syrian Regime Detains Minors in Prisons to Execute Them Upon Reaching 18 appeared first on SIRAJ.