Deir ez-Zor Prison: Imprisoned Behind Two Lines

When ISIS consolidated control over most of Deir ez-Zor Governorate in 2014, government-held pockets — including the military base, airport, and military prison — were surrounded. The ensuing siege lasted over three years. According to UN humanitarian reports, the besieged population of approximately 93,000 civilians in the government-held enclave survived on diminishing humanitarian airdrops. The military prison within the enclave held political and military detainees in conditions that combined the standard features of Assad's detention system — torture, overcrowding, no due process — with the effects of the siege: food shortages, complete medical isolation, and the psychological pressure of being surrounded by ISIS with no prospect of outside contact or rescue. The UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria documented that detainees in Deir ez-Zor were unable to receive information about or from their families for years. When the Syrian Arab Army broke the ISIS siege in September 2017, the prison resumed normal operations — meaning the detainees remained imprisoned.