Detention Documentation
Prison & Detention Archive
Documenting Syria's detention centers
Adra Central Prison
سجن عدرا المركزي
Adra Central Prison, located northeast of Damascus, is Syria's largest civilian prison and the main pre-trial detention facility in the Damascus area. Unlike the military intelligence facilities, Adra was officially a civilian prison under the Ministry of Interior and held both common criminals and political detainees. After 2011 it became severely overcrowded with political prisoners. Conditions documented by Human Rights Watch include extreme overcrowding, denial of medical care, and deaths in custody. It was briefly captured by rebel forces in 2013 before being retaken by government forces. Prisoners were released when rebel forces opened it in December 2024.
Air Force Intelligence Detention — Mazzeh
احتجاز المخابرات الجوية — المزة
The Air Force Intelligence Directorate's detention facility near Mazzeh Military Airport, Damascus, was among the most feared in Syria. Under the command of General Jamil Hassan (director 2009–2019), the facility was used to detain, torture, and disappear thousands. Jamil Hassan was indicted in absentia by a French court in 2018 and by German courts for crimes against humanity. The facility is distinct from Palestine Branch (Military Intelligence) — it belonged to a separate agency reporting directly to Bashar al-Assad. Survivors describe it as one of the most methodically brutal facilities in the Syrian intelligence apparatus.
Aleppo Central Prison
سجن حلب المركزي
Aleppo Central Prison, located in the Aleppo Citadel area, became a focal point of conflict during the 2012–2016 Battle of Aleppo. When rebel forces gained control of east Aleppo in 2012, the prison — in government-held territory — was besieged and at times cut off by fighting. Its inmates, including thousands of political detainees, endured the siege conditions alongside the guards. The prison became a symbol of the impossible position of those caught inside Syria's conflict — inmates could not be released, could barely be supplied, and were held in the middle of an active urban battle. After government forces retook all of Aleppo in December 2016, the prison remained operational. It was liberated and its prisoners released when HTS and allied factions took Aleppo in November 2024.
Branch 215 (Military Security)
فرع 215 (الأمن العسكري)
Branch 215 of Syrian Military Intelligence, located in the Qaboun neighborhood of Damascus, became one of the most notorious detention facilities in the Syrian civil war. Known informally as 'the Raid Branch,' it specialized in detaining those captured in military operations. Documented practices include suspension torture (shabeh), electric shock, sexual violence, and forced disappearance. Hundreds of documented deaths in custody. Sanctioned by the EU and US. Opened by rebel forces in December 2024.
Branch 251 (Al-Khatib)
فرع 251 (الخطيب)
Branch 251, known as Al-Khatib, was a detention and interrogation facility of Syria's General Intelligence Directorate located in the Al-Khatib neighborhood of Damascus. It became one of the primary processing centers for the mass detention of protesters and activists after 2011. Its head of interrogations, Anwar Raslan, was convicted of crimes against humanity by a German court in 2022. Survivors described systematic rape, electric shock torture, stress positions, and starvation as standard interrogation practice.
Branch 291 (General Intelligence, Aleppo)
فرع 291 (المخابرات العامة، حلب)
Branch 291 of Syria's General Intelligence Directorate, based in Aleppo, was the primary intelligence detention facility for Syria's second city and its surrounding region. After 2011 it processed thousands of detainees from the Aleppo uprising and subsequent battle. Documented practices mirror those at Branch 251 in Damascus — overcrowding, systematic torture, deaths in custody, enforced disappearance. The Aleppo branches of all four intelligence agencies operated simultaneously, creating a complex and interlocking detention system.
Branch 40 (Political Security Directorate)
فرع 40 (إدارة أمن الدولة)
Branch 40 of Syria's Political Security Directorate (Amn al-Siyasi), located near Palestine Square in Damascus, was one of the central detention and interrogation facilities used for political opponents. The Political Security Directorate was one of Syria's four intelligence agencies and specialized in monitoring and suppressing political activity. Branch 40 was used for the initial detention and interrogation of activists, journalists, politicians, and anyone suspected of political opposition. Documented practices include torture, prolonged solitary confinement, and enforced disappearance.
Deir ez-Zor Military Prison
سجن دير الزور العسكري
The military prison in Deir ez-Zor, capital of Deir ez-Zor Governorate in eastern Syria, was a key detention facility in a region that became one of the most contested in the entire conflict. After ISIS captured Deir ez-Zor city in 2014, government forces maintained a besieged pocket including the military prison for over 1,100 days until Syrian Army forces broke the siege in September 2017. The prison and its detainees were held in one of the most extreme siege conditions of the entire war — simultaneously imprisoned by the Assad government and surrounded by ISIS.
Homs Central Prison
سجن حمص المركزي
Homs Central Prison is the main civilian detention facility in Homs Governorate, Syria's third largest city and a major center of the 2011 uprising. After 2011, the prison's population swelled dramatically with political detainees from the Homs uprising and the prolonged siege of Baba Amr and other neighborhoods. Located in an urban area that itself came under conflict, Homs Prison was also significant because detainees held inside could sometimes hear the fighting outside — a psychological torment documented by survivors. It was opened and its prisoners released when rebel forces took control of Homs in December 2024.
Palestine Branch (Branch 235)
فرع فلسطين (فرع 235)
The Palestine Branch (Branch 235) of Syrian Military Intelligence is one of Syria's most feared detention facilities, located in central Damascus. Originally established to monitor Palestinians in Syria, it became a general-purpose detention and torture center. Notorious for its underground cells — known as 'the grave' — where detainees were held in total darkness. Its former director Hafez Makhlouf, Assad's cousin, was sanctioned by the EU and US. It was liberated on December 8, 2024.
Saydnaya Military Prison
سجن صيدنايا العسكري
Saydnaya Military Prison, located 30 km north of Damascus, is Syria's most notorious detention facility and the site of systematic mass torture and extrajudicial execution. Built in the 1980s under Hafez al-Assad, it expanded massively after 2011 to hold political detainees, activists, and civilians. Amnesty International's 2017 report 'Human Slaughterhouse' documented that between 5,000 and 13,000 people were executed there in secret between 2011 and 2015 — hanged in weekly batches every Monday and Wednesday. Survivors described industrial-scale torture, starvation, and a facility designed to kill.
Tadmor Prison
سجن تدمر
Tadmor Prison, located in the ancient city of Palmyra (Tadmor) in the Syrian desert, was one of Syria's most feared detention facilities and a central instrument of Ba'athist terror. Established by Hafez al-Assad, it held primarily political prisoners — leftists, Islamists, and dissidents. The 1980 Tadmor Prison massacre, in which Defense Companies units killed hundreds of prisoners in their cells in retaliation for a failed assassination attempt on Hafez al-Assad, stands as one of the most savage acts of political violence in modern Syrian history. The prison was closed in 2001 and reopened in 2011. ISIS destroyed large parts of it in 2015. Syrian rebels blew up its remaining structures in 2016.