Loading AI tools
Adra Prison (Arabic: سجن عدرا) is a prison in Syria, on the northeast outskirts of Damascus.[1][2] Political prisoners are held in the prison, along with a mixture of civil prisoners such as traffic offenders, murderers, and drug dealers. In 2014, the prison held more than 7,000 inmates, a dozen of them women, in space designed for 2,500.[3][4][5][6][7] The Washington Post referred to the prison as "infamous".[8]
 | |
| Location | northeast outskirts of Damascus, Syria |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 33.5901037°N 36.4404945°E |
| Status | Operational |
| Capacity | 2,500 |
| Population | 7,000 (as of 2014) |
| Notable prisoners | |
| Anwar al-Bunni, Bassel Khartabil, Mas'ud Hamid, Haitham al-Maleh | |
Ghassan Najjar, an engineer who was imprisoned in 1980, reportedly went on two hunger strikes, one to protest conditions in the prison. His fellow inmates said he was beaten so badly by prison guards trying to force him to eat that he suffered spinal injuries.[9]
Mas'ud Hamid, a Kurdish journalism student, was held in solitary confinement in the prison for one year from 2003 to 2004 before he was allowed monthly visits, and Human Rights Watch said that interrogators reportedly tortured him and beat him with a studded whip on the bottom of his feet.[10] His room was 2 by 0.85 metres (6 ft 7 in × 2 ft 9 in), largely filled by a toilet in it.[11]
In December 2004 Kurds in the prison conducted a hunger strike, which was allegedly halted by torture.[12]
In March 2011, 13 prisoners at the prison, including 80-year-old former judge Haitham al-Maleh and lawyer Anwar al-Bunni began a hunger strike to protest government oppression and the holding of political prisoners.[13]
On July 1, 2013, female detainees in the prison began hunger strike in response to negligence of their cases by the public prosecution of the Counterterrorism Court, and absence of approval of their respective trials.[14]
As of December 2014, the jail is well beyond its 2,500 person capacity at over 7,000 prisoners of all types of accused offenders, from murderers to traffic violators.[7]
In August[15] and September 2015, Jaysh al-Islam shelled and stormed the prison, taking control of two buildings.[16][17]
Wikiwand in your browser!
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Every time you click a link to Wikipedia, Wiktionary or Wikiquote in your browser's search results, it will show the modern Wikiwand interface.
Wikiwand extension is a five stars, simple, with minimum permission required to keep your browsing private, safe and transparent.
