>> President Bashar Al-Assad-- >> Has been brought down-- >> Thousands of people celebrated in the main square chanting freedom.

>> NARRATOR: The inside story of mass detention, torture, and killing.

Told by those who carried it out.

>> NARRATOR: And their victims.

>> NARRATOR: Now on FRONTLINE, Syria’s Detainee Files.

♪ ♪ (heavy breathing) (footsteps ascending) (heavy breathing) (muttering breathlessly) >> SHADI HAROUN (speaking Arabic): (speaking Arabic) ♪ ♪ (exhales deeply) ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> HUSSAM (speaking Arabic): ♪ ♪ >> YUSUF (speaking Arabic): >> OSAMA (speaking Arabic): ♪ ♪ >> OBEIDAT (speaking Arabic): >> ZAIN: (scoffs) (speaking Arabic): >> OMAR (speaking Arabic): >> KAMAL (speaking Arabic): >> HUSSAM: ♪ ♪ >> SHADI: ♪ ♪ (car horn honking, din of the street) (car horn honks) >> SHADI (voiceover): >> SARA OBEIDAT: Four days after the fall of Bashar al-Assad, we went with Shadi Haroun and his younger brother Hadi to Saydnaya Prison, where they were once detained and tortured.

♪ ♪ Families of the disappeared were making the same journey; searching for their loved ones.

>> SHADI: ♪ ♪ >> OBEIDAT: After almost a decade as prisoners, the brothers are now working with a human rights organization to gather evidence of crimes committed by the Assad regime.

>> SHADI: (man shouting Arabic nearby) >> MAN: >> SHADI: >> MAN: >> MAN: >> SHADI: >> MAN: (speaking Arabic) >> WOMAN: >> SHADI: >> MAN: >> SHADI: >> MAN: (speaking Arabic) >> MAN: >> SHADI: (person coughs) >> MAN: ♪ ♪ >> SHADI: (chuckles) (crowd chanting in Arabic, clapping) (light clicks, echoing) (chanting, clapping continues) (car horns honking) CROWD: (chanting continues) >> The demands for political change that started in Tunisia has now reached Syria.

>> Which has seen unprecedented challenges to the ten-year rule of President al-Assad.

>> The anti-government demonstrations are getting bigger and they're spreading.

>> Some of the demonstrators have been openly calling for revolution.

(crowd whistling, cheering) >> OBEIDAT: When Syria's uprising began, Shadi and his brother joined the protests, and within a month, they were organizing them in their hometown.

>> SHADI: (crowd clamoring) >> HADI: >> SHADI: >> HADI: (crowd chanting) >> HADI: >> SHADI: (repeatedly): >> HADI: (rapid gunfire) (rapid gunfire continues) >> SHADI: (clamoring in Arabic) >> HADI: >> SHADI: >> OBEIDAT: On that day, Assad's security forces killed more than 100 protestors, and arrested thousands across the country.

Shadi was one of them.

He says he was taken to what looked like a normal house in a residential neighborhood in Damascus.

But inside was an interrogation center run by Syrian Intelligence.

>> SHADI: >> ZAIN: >> OBEIDAT: Colonel "Zain" was a high-ranking Air Force Intelligence officer when the uprising began.

He eventually defected in 2014.

He's one of 40 former regime officials of various ranks we tracked down across a dozen countries.

We verified their identities by examining military IDs and other documents, and cross-referencing their accounts with those of other insiders and former prisoners.

Many of them spoke to us before the fall of Assad, and feared reprisals from both sides.

Some have given testimony to human rights groups or courts investigating war crimes.

We agreed to conceal their identities and change their names, given the value of their firsthand accounts about the abuses carried out by the Assad regime.

>> ZAIN: >> OBEIDAT: For decades, Syria's intelligence agencies were seen as pillars that upheld the state.

The country had four of them.

The most powerful and prestigious was created by Bashar al-Assad's father, Hafez: Air Force Intelligence.

>> ZAIN: >> OBEIDAT (in Arabic): >> ZAIN: (laughs) >> OMAR: >> OBEIDAT (voiceover): Sergeant "Omar" was another Air Force Intelligence officer.

He defected about a year after the uprising began, and ultimately fought against the regime.

>> OMAR: >> HADI: ♪ ♪ >> OBEIDAT (voiceover): Shadi's family paid a middleman to try and find out where he was detained.

Regime officials were known to take bribes for this kind of information.

(in Arabic): >> RIYAD (speaking Arabic): >> OBEIDAT (in Arabic): >> RIYAD: >> OBEIDAT (voiceover): Major "Riyad" was an officer in the Syrian Air Force, who says he was assigned to Air Force Intelligence when the uprising began.

>> RIYAD: >> HADI: (audience applauds) >> OBEIDAT: Around two months into the uprising, President Assad tried to diffuse the protests by meeting with communities across Syria, including Shadi's neighborhood.

(audience chanting in Arabic) >> ASSAD: (audience applauds) >> OBEIDAT: Hadi told us he was in a delegation that met President Assad, and he asked for the release of his brother.

He says the president agreed and he was sent to see the head of Air Force Intelligence, Major General Jamil Hassan.

>> HADI: >> HADI: (pigeons cooing) ♪ ♪ >> OBEIDAT: It's December 2024, soon after the fall of Assad.

Shadi's heading to an Air Force Intelligence facility called Mezzeh Investigations Branch.

(pulls emergency brake) >> SHADI: >> OBEIDAT: Located on an airbase, this was one of the regime's most notorious detention sites.

Shadi's looking for information about those who are still missing.

>> SHADI: >> OBEIDAT (in Arabic, voiceover): >> ZAIN: (camera shutter sound) >> OBEIDAT: Although prisoners' identities were being hidden from the public and other detainees, meticulous records were kept about who was being held and where.

The detainees' files are a trove of potential evidence for Shadi and his organization.

(camera shutter sound) But they're in disarray, and many have been destroyed.

(papers rustling) >> SHADI: So, this is at, like...

The number of this body is 10,002.

This is one person.

And this is the story of this person.

No name.

(exhales) >> OBEIDAT: In May 2011, Shadi was transferred here, to Mezzeh Investigations Branch.

>> ZAIN: >> SHADI: >> OBEIDAT: Abdul Salam Mahmoud was the head of the Investigations Unit at Mezzeh.

There's no publicly available photo of him, and his whereabouts are unknown.

The U.S. has charged him with conspiracy to commit war crimes through the cruel and inhuman treatment of detainees, and a French court has convicted him of complicity in crimes against humanity.

>> SHADI: >> ZAIN: >> SHADI: (clears throat) >> OBEIDAT: Shadi says he refused to confess, and eventually he was presented to Air Force Intelligence head, Jamil Hassan.

The General ordered him to stop protesting and sent him home.

>> SHADI: ♪ ♪ >> HADI: >> SHADI: >> OBEIDAT: A few weeks after Shadi got out of prison, he began organizing protests again.

This time, he took on a more prominent role.

>> SHADI: >> HADI: >> OBEIDAT (in Arabic): >> SHADI: >> OBEIDAT: Nine months into the uprising, thousands of protestors had been arrested and an estimated 3,000 had been killed.

(gunshots) Facing international criticism, President Assad went on U.S. television, and tried to distance himself from the actions of the security forces.

>> Do you think that your forces cracked down too hard?

>> They are not my forces.

They are military forces, belong to the government.

>> Okay, but you are the government.

>> I don't own them.

I'm president.

I don't own the country, so they're not my forces.

>> No, but you have to give the order.

>> No, no, no.

We-we have, in the Constitution, in the law, the-the mission of the institution to protect the people, to stand against any chaos or any, uh, terrorist.

(clamoring) >> WOMAN: >> OBEIDAT: The former security officials we spoke to said they would round people up from where they lived, worked, or even prayed.

But the demonstrations continued to grow, as did the regime's wanted list.

(announcement in Arabic) >> ANNOUNCER: ♪ ♪ >> SHADI: >> ZAIN: >> OMAR: >> SHADI: >> HADI: >> SHADI: >> HADI: >> SHADI: (chuckles) (clears throat) ♪ ♪ >> OBEIDAT: In December 2011, the brothers say they were taken to Harasta, an Air Force Intelligence branch on the outskirts of Damascus.

Colonel "Zain" was second in command there at the time.

>> ZAIN: >> SHADI: >> HADI: >> SHADI: >> HADI: >> SHADI: >> HADI: >> SHADI: >> ZAIN: >> HADI: >> SHADI: >> SHADI: >> HADI: >> SHADI: >> HADI: >> ZAIN: >> OBEIDAT (in Arabic): >> ZAIN: >> OBEIDAT: >> ZAIN: >> OBEIDAT: >> ZAIN: >> OBEIDAT: >> ZAIN: ♪ ♪ >> ABBAS: >> OBEIDAT: Warrant Officer "Abbas" told us about his first day of training at Air Force Intelligence as a young recruit.

>> ABBAS: >> OBEIDAT (in Arabic): >> ABBAS: (instructor and children shout in Arabic) >> INSTRUCTOR: >> CHILDREN: >> HUSSAM: >> OBEIDAT: Before joining the military, Hussam grew up in a rural part of Syria where opportunities were scarce.

He told us that he and his classmates were taught that the Assads were the saviors of Syria.

>> CHILDREN: >> HUSSAM: ♪ ♪ >> OBEIDAT: Over the course of the war, Saydnaya became the most infamous of Syria's prisons.

Built in the 1980s, it had two main buildings: one housed soldiers who were considered traitors.

The other was largely for anyone who opposed the regime.

Warrant Officer "Osama" was the chief of staff to the head of Saydnaya prison.

>> OSAMA: >> OBEIDAT (in Arabic): >> OSAMA: >> HUSSAM: >> OBEIDAT: >> HUSSAM: (thunder rumbling) >> OBEIDAT: By April 2012, Shadi and Hadi had been detained by Air Force Intelligence for four months.

>> SHADI: >> HADI: >> SHADI: >> HADI: >> OBEIDAT (in Arabic): >> HUSSAM: >> SHADI: >> HUSSAM: >> SHADI: >> HUSSAM: >> SHADI: >> OBEIDAT: >> HUSSAM: >> OBEIDAT: >> HUSSAM: >> OBEIDAT: Officer "Osama," the chief of staff to the head of the prison, told us that he often tried to stop guards from torturing prisoners.

(in Arabic): >> OSAMA: >> OBEIDAT: >> OSAMA: >> OBEIDAT: >> OSAMA: >> OBEIDAT: >> OSAMA: >> HADI: >> SHADI: >> HADI: >> SHADI: >> HADI (voiceover): (clears throat) ♪ ♪ >> HUSSAM: >> SHADI: >> HADI: (chuckling): (distant chatter echoing) SHADI: HADI: SHADI: (voiceover): >> OSAMA: >> OBEIDAT: Inmates were quickly and secretly convicted in military field courts, with no lawyers or right to appeal.

The trials often ended with death sentences, signed off on behalf of President Assad himself.

When pressed in public, Assad insisted the killings were lawful.

>> Do you know what goes on in that prison?

Have you been there?

>> No, I haven't been-- I've been in the presidential palace.

(chortles): Not the prison.

>> Okay.

>> Uh, first of all, execution is part of the Syrian law.

If the Syrian government or institution wants to do it, they can make it legal.

It's been there for decades.

>> Secret trials, no tr-- no lawyers?

>> Why do they need it if they can make it legally?

They don't need anything secret.

>> Is that legal in your country?

>> Yeah, yeah, of course it's legal.

For the case, independence.

The execution, according to the law, after a trial, is a legal action.

>> HUSSAM: ♪ ♪ >> OBEIDAT: An investigation by Amnesty International found that in the first four years of the uprising, up to 13,000 detainees were executed in Saydnaya prison.

The bodies of executed detainees, along with those who died from torture or disease, were taken to military hospitals where their deaths were registered.

>> KAMAL: (lighter clicks) >> OBEIDAT: Officer "Kamal" was an army nurse who worked in a hospital morgue until the final days of the regime.

>> KAMAL: >> OBEIDAT: His description matches a trove of photographs smuggled out of Syria in 2013 that show nearly 7,000 detainees who died in government custody.

>> KAMAL: >> OBEIDAT (in Arabic): >> KAMAL: (camera shutter clicks) >> OBEIDAT: Over a hundred detainee death certificates we reviewed show the same cause of death: heart and respiratory failure.

Even in cases where we found evidence the inmates were tortured.

(in Arabic): >> KAMAL: (birds twittering) >> SHADI: ♪ ♪ >> Tens of thousands of people have disappeared in Syria's jails.

Many were tortured to death.

>> The Syrian government has denied claims of abuse.

>> We don't have torture policy in Syria.

Why-why do you use the torture for?

>> Human rights organizations estimate that tens of thousands of people have disappeared since the Syrian conflict began.

>> Most have been taken from the streets by government security agents, and they're known as "the disappeared."

>> The numbers are simply striking.

We don't know what happened with them, if they are still in prison, if they have been killed.

>> OBEIDAT (in Arabic): >> ZAIN: (din of the street) >> SHADI: ♪ ♪ >> OBEIDAT: By 2019, Assad's forces had largely put down the uprising.

(pigeons cooing) Shadi and Hadi had spent years being transferred from prison to prison, and were back at Saydnaya.

One day that summer, they were summoned to see a judge.

(Shadi speaking Arabic) >> SHADI: (soft chuckle) (soft chuckle) (soft chuckle) >> HADI: >> OBEIDAT: >> SHADI: (exhales) ♪ ♪ (distant siren blaring) >> OBEIDAT: After his release, Shadi went into exile in Turkey.

In 2021, the brothers joined a Syrian human rights organization investigating crimes committed by the regime.

(line ringing) >> WOMAN (on phone): >> SHADI: (line ringing) >> MAN (on phone): >> SHADI: (lighter clicks) >> MAN: >> MAN 2 (on phone): >> WOMAN 2 (on phone): (pilot light clicking) >> SHADI: >> WOMAN 2: >> SHADI: >> MAN 3 (on phone): >> SHADI: >> WOMAN 3 (on phone): >> SHADI: >> WOMAN 3: ♪ ♪ >> YUSUF: >> OBEIDAT: Yusuf worked for the city of Damascus as a bulldozer driver.

He's allowed us to use his real name.

He says that a few months into the uprising, an intelligence officer ordered him to take his bulldozer to Najha cemetery on the outskirts of the city.

>> YUSUF: (camera shutter clicking) (clicking continues) >> KAMAL: >> OBEIDAT: Officer "Kamal" told us the dead bodies were piling up in the morgue at the military hospital where he worked.

He says that security forces took him and some of his colleagues to several locations, including Najha cemetery.

>> KAMAL: >> OBEIDAT (in Arabic): >> KAMAL: >> OBEIDAT (voiceover): >> YUSUF: >> KAMAL: >> OBEIDAT: >> KAMAL: >> SHADI: >> YUSUF: ♪ ♪ >> OBEIDAT: Yusuf says he stopped working for the government in 2013 and later fled Syria.

He's given testimony about the mass graves at Najha cemetery and elsewhere to the U.S. Congress.

>> YUSUF: >> OBEIDAT: We've been told by human rights investigators that there are around 130 suspected mass graves across parts of Syria once controlled by the regime; and new ones are still being found.

Officer "Kamal" gave us the location of a previously unknown site in an area called Maarouneh in a military zone between Damascus and Saydnaya.

He says he went there once in 2014.

>> KAMAL: >> OBEIDAT (in Arabic): >> KAMAL: >> OBEIDAT: >> KAMAL: >> OBEIDAT: We've obtained satellite imagery of the location and had it independently analyzed.

This is what it looked like before the protests began.

And this image, from 2012, shows that several large pits appeared in the first 18 months of the uprising.

Officer "Kamal" agreed to take one of our colleagues to Maarouneh to film the site.

>> MAN: >> OBEIDAT: We also spoke to a truck driver who told us he transported more than 3,000 bodies there over a period of eight months.

With so many suspected grave sites across Syria, it could take years to investigate them all.

>> KAMAL: >> OBEIDAT (in Arabic): >> KAMAL: (waves crashing) >> OBEIDAT: >> HUSSAM: >> OBEIDAT: >> HUSSAM: >> OBEIDAT: "Hussam"-- the prison guard-- defected at the end of 2012 and fled Syria.

Since then, he's given testimony and information to human rights investigators about what happened at Saydnaya prison.

>> HUSSAM: >> OBEIDAT (in Arabic): (sighs) >> HADI: >> HUSSAM: >> OBEIDAT: >> HUSSAM: ♪ ♪ >> HADI: >> ZAIN: >> OBEIDAT: Colonel "Zain," second in command at Harasta Intelligence Branch, has been living in hiding since leaving Syria.

He's provided information to human rights investigators but insists he had no direct involvement in torture or killing.

(in Arabic): >> ZAIN: >> OBEIDAT: >> ZAIN: >> OBEIDAT: >> OSAMA: >> OBEIDAT: In 2013, Osama's boss, the head of Saydnaya Prison, was captured and killed by Syrian rebels.

Shortly afterwards, "Osama" fled the country.

He went on to help human rights groups gathering evidence of the atrocities that took place in Saydnaya.

(in Arabic): >> OSAMA: >> OBEIDAT: >> OSAMA: >> OBEIDAT: >> OSAMA: >> KAMAL: >> OBEIDAT: Officer "Kamal" is still in Syria.

After the regime fell, he gave his account of what happened at the hospital and the mass graves to the new government.

Four of his former colleagues as well as multiple detainees accuse him of abusing prisoners.

He denies this.

>> KAMAL: >> SHADI: ♪ ♪ (crowd clapping to a beat) (crowd singing, clapping continues) (singing, clapping continues) >> SHADI (voiceover): >> MAN: >> WOMAN: >> SHADI (voiceover): ♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: Go to pbs.org/frontline for more on the human toll of the Syrian War.

>> Human rights organizations estimate that tens of thousands of people have disappeared since the Syrian conflict began.

>> NARRATOR: And see all our past reporting on Syria.

Visit the FRONTLINE archive where you can stream more than 300 documentaries.

Connect with FRONTLINE on Facebook and Instagram and stream anytime on the PBS app, YouTube, or pbs.org/frontline.

Captioned by Media Access Group at WGBH access.wgbh.org >> For more on this and other "FRONTLINE" programs, visit our website at pbs.org/frontline.

♪ ♪ FRONTLINE's "Syria's Detainee Files" is available on Amazon Prime Video.

♪ ♪