Days after the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, a Syrian man living in London revealed the full extent of his horrific detention in one of Syria’s most notorious prisons – Al-Khatib, a place infamous among survivors as “Hell on Earth.” For years, Abdullah Al Nofal had kept the details of his brutal treatment hidden, but in an emotional moment, he shared the truth with his wife, Douna Haj Ahmed, as news reports of prisoners fleeing the regime’s forces aired.
The Syrian civil war, which erupted in 2011 after peaceful protests against Assad’s authoritarian rule, spiralled into a devastating conflict that displaced millions and subjected countless individuals to the regime’s brutal crackdowns. Al-Khatib prison, located in Damascus, became a symbol of this cruelty, where thousands of detainees were tortured, abused, and killed by Assad’s security forces.
For Douna, who had lost brothers to the regime’s detention centres, the revelation was deeply painful but also eye-opening. Though she knew her husband had suffered, she had never heard the full story of what he endured. Abdullah, 36, had always kept his traumatic memories to himself, unwilling to share the horrors of his experience. But as images of prisoners escaping Syria’s clutches were broadcasted, Abdullah finally opened up, saying, “This is where I was arrested, this is the place.”
His wife recalled how Abdullah, through tears, said, “I could be one of them. I could be dead.” “I feel that when he saw this, he felt that this [was] closure,” Douna shared with the BBC. “Now we want people to hear what Syrians went through.”
Abdullah’s journey began in July 2013 when he was working as a storekeeper for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Damascus. Having participated in the initial anti-regime protests in 2011, he distanced himself as the conflict became more violent and complex. However, his past activism came back to haunt him when he was arrested.
On that fateful day 11 years ago, Abdullah was detained at a checkpoint on the outskirts of Damascus. Blindfolded, handcuffed, and transported to a military facility, he was placed in solitary confinement for three days, enduring extreme isolation and brutal beatings.
“It was so dark for three days, I remember,” Abdullah recalled. “I don’t hear any sound. It was so dark. You feel so lonely.”
Eventually, he was transferred to Al-Khatib prison, a facility where thousands of detainees were subjected to unimaginable torture. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, nearly 60,000 people were tortured or killed in these prisons. “When I started to look around everywhere, there were people standing almost naked,” he says, recalling the constant cycle of suffering and death.
Disease ran rampant, and Abdullah witnessed many prisoners die from neglect and torture. “If you are not tortured yourself, every minute they will take someone to the investigation. They will get back to the room full of blood… every time you touch someone they will scream because you touched their wound.”
In one of his darkest moments, Abdullah was tortured and forced to falsely confess to charges of transporting weapons. “Every minute it’s like you’re dying,” he says of the ordeal. “As long as you say, ‘I didn’t do it’, they will keep torturing you and they will take you to another stage in torturing,” he says.
After 12 gruelling days, he managed to avoid further torture by fabricating a story. “I was lucky to get out alive,” he admitted.
Having fled Syria, Abdullah and Douna eventually found refuge in London. “We finally finished with the regime. We are really free now,” Abdullah reflected. “We can tell the full story.”
