ALEPPO, Syria (North Press) – “My son will die of waiting, not because of starvation or cold weather,” These were the first words uttered by Ahmad al-Ahmad (name changed), 62, from Aleppo’s al-Asila neighborhood, about his son detained in Aleppo Central Prison, in northern Syria.
His son has been detained without trial since January 2017.
“My son eats one spoonful of rice for lunch and one potato for breakfast just to survive,” he tells North Press.
The central prison was established in mid-2013 in Aleppo’s Masaken al-Sabil neighborhood. The prison was formerly located in the village of al-Ahdath village, in the northern Aleppo Governorate. However, after the armed opposition factions took control of the village, the Syrian government forces repurposed the building of a local association to serve as the current central prison.
During every Monday visit, the detained son complains to his father about “the mistreatment inside the prison and, particularly, the small portions of food they receive.”
Detainees at Aleppo Central Prison receive “one potato, a loaf of bread, and, occasionally, a few olives for breakfast. For lunch they eat in groups. He only ever gets one or two spoonful’s of the small meal that is served.”
Al-Ahmad can provide his son with 100.000 SYP (around 16 USD), which is spent on calls home and other personal use, but is not enough to afford good food.”
Taking advantage of prisoners
The prison’s management purposefully reduces the portions of food allotted to prisoners “in order to force them to buy from expensive food stands in the prison’s yard”, sources inside the prison say.
The stands are “an investment made by a prisoner working for the prison’s officers and director.”
“The prison lacks all kinds of services which a reform center should offer. Electricity and water are provided at the prison officials’ whims or depending on the valuables the officers receive from visiting family members,” the same source continues.
Officers sneak in mobile phones for a few hours in exchange for money. Some are even sold to detainees, but everything “has a price,” the sources say.
There are several sections in the prison. The first section houses temporary inmates who are transferred in from police stations and local security branches to await their trials.
The other sections combines inmates charged with everything, including “traffic violations, catering irregulations, and assaults to those arrested on charges of terrorism, who are held without sentence.”
Mistreatment
In December 2022, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad decreed a general amnesty for crimes committed before Dec. 21, 2022.