Northern Aleppo – North-Press Agency
Dejla Khalil
Over 23 months, the 30-year-old Kamal Omar (pseudonym) from the region Afrin, was subjected to the most severe torture and violence in al-Rai prison in the northern countryside of Aleppo, the prison, had it not been for the sounds of the prisoners who survived from it, no one would have known what happened behind its bars, which was able to reveal the acts that targeted naked people inside it.
At a security checkpoint near the town of Azaz in the northern countryside of Aleppo, the Turkish-backed armed opposition groups arrested Kamal Omar, when he was trying to leave the city of Afrin during the control of the Turkish forces and the armed opposition groups two years ago, after which the groups' elements threatened his family that they will kill him if they did not pay a ransom.
Human rights organizations have documented hundreds of violations committed by the Turkish forces and their affiliated armed opposition groups against the indigenous people of Afrin, after they took control over the region on March 18, 2018, after severe battles against the People's Protection Units (YPG), which lasted for two months.
Kamal's family did not have the financial means to pay the 20 million SYP, which the Turkish-backed armed opposition groups had demanded his release, the Turkish-backed militants tortured him and beat him and then ‘sold’ him to the Turkish intelligence personnel in al-Rai prison for $100, according to what Kamal said.
"The Turks deliberately changed our names and pictures in our records in al-Rai prison, intending to hide our trace from our families. The prisoners were always asking: 'Why our families aren’t looking for us and aren’t seeking to release us?” Without knowing that the Turks were giving false names and pictures to people who were looking for the kidnapped and the detainees.”
In its 2019 annual report, Human Rights Watch indicated that the situation in Afrin is not safe and the militants of the Turkish-affiliated groups have committed violations against the local civilians, including extortion and torture.
Kamal Omar estimated the number of the kidnapped people in al-Rai prison at about 600 people, "Most of their accusations were aiming at asking for ransom and collecting money.”
Kamal Omar cannot forget the types of torture he was subjected to in al-Rai prison: "They tortured me, they were tying my hands behind my back and lifting me to the top, and began beating with the cables on my face and head. I do not forget the wheel and how they were covering my face with a cloth and then pouring water into my mouth to suffocate!”
In August 2018, the Violations Documentation Center in Northern Syria (VDC-NSY), published a testimony of a survivor from al-Rai prison, in which he said that he saw atrocities being committed against the kidnapped people, including cutting the ears of a detainee by the pliers and beating women, in addition to the forms of torture and insults.
Kamal considered the verbal insults he was receiving, for being a Kurd, are "more painful than the physical torture,” in addition to preventing him from speaking in his mother tongue language and from shaving his chin.
Like other Kidnapped Kurdish persons, Kamal was forced to learn to speak the Turkish language, in addition to being forced to speak Arabic sometimes, to perform prayers and to read al-Quran at times imposed by the opposition militants in the prison, "I tried to intercept several times until they blindfolded me and tied me in the solitary confinement and deprived me of food for several days.”
During his prison period, Kamal witnessed the killing of two detainees under torture, "There is no one who enters that prison and leaves without illnesses, due to the severity of torture, lack of nutrition and difficult health conditions.”
There are many types of torture in which a child or an elderly person is not observed, where Kamal recalled that painfully: "Sometimes they would give us food in the toilet to be eaten."
Al-Rai prison did not only house hundreds of men, but there were two rooms for women as well, according to what Kamal mentioned, "At night, we heard their screams, but we didn't know what was happening to them?"
After the release decision, Kamal spent more than three additional months, as the prison administration requires 5,000 Turkish Liras from each released person, for each day they slept and ate in the prison, as he did not have the means to pay for his sleep, eat and drink, he was punished by an additional three months.
Kamal went out of prison, to go back to his hometown, which is under the control of the same Turkish-backed armed groups, but he did not stay much, for fear of being kidnapped and imprisoned again, "just because I speak Kurdish, will cause me to be kidnapped and imprisoned,” Kamal added.
A relative of Kamal had to pay 500,000 SYP for a commander of a Turkish-backed militia inside Afrin region, to be smuggled out of the region into the northern countryside of Aleppo.