- Date of Incident
- 01 Jan 2011 – 08 Dec 2024
- Location
- Saydnaya, Syria
- Publication Date
- 16 Aug 2016
- Commissioned By
- Amnesty International
- Additional Funding
- Amnesty International
- Collaborators
- Amnesty International, 1635film-istanbul
- Methodologies
- Situated Testimony, 3D Modelling, Audio Analysis, Reenactment, Software Development
- Forums
- 'Human Slaughterhouse' report by Amnesty International; Legal proceedings in Germany
- Exhibitions
- Counter Investigations, Forensic Architecture: Towards an Investigative Aesthetics, Forensic Architecture: Hacia una Estética Investigativa, Beautiful New Worlds: Virtual Realities in Contemporary Art, The Architecture of Conflict, République Géniale, Saydnaya: Inside a Syrian Torture Prison, Unsettlement, Forensic Architecture: Assembled Practices, Beyond the Pain, Super Sight: A World Viewed Through Technology, Forensic Architecture: Witnesses
Since 2011, thousands have died in prisons and detention facilities operated by the Syrian government. Tens of thousands of people have been tortured and ill-treated, in violation of international law.
In April 2016, Amnesty International and Forensic Architecture (FA) travelled to Istanbul to meet five survivors from Saydnaya Prison, near Damascus. In recent years, no journalists or monitoring groups which report publicly have been able to visit the notorious prison, or speak with those held there.
As there are no images of Saydnaya in the public domain, our researchers had to work with the memories of survivors to recreate what is happening inside.
Using architectural and acoustic modelling, our researchers helped witnesses reconstruct the architecture of the prison and their experiences of detention.
The former detainees described the cells and other areas of the prison, including stairwells, corridors, moving doors and windows, to an architectural researcher, who would reconstruct the spaces they described.
The witnesses also added objects they recalled, from torture tools to blankets and furniture. The recollections sparked more memories as the model developed.
Detainees at Saydnaya are generally transferred to the facility after spending months or even years in detention elsewhere, often following secret military trials. Others arrive at the prison without having seen a judge, and do not know what charges are laid against them, or how long they will be detained.
The Saydnaya project formed part of a wider campaign led by Amnesty International calling on the Syrian government to allow independent monitors into its detention centres. In 2016, Amnesty called on Russia and the US ‘to use their global influence to ensure that independent monitors are allowed in to investigate conditions in Syria’s torture prisons’.
Methodology
As no images from Saydnaya exist in the public domain, we were dependent on the memories of survivors to recreate what happened inside. Using architectural and acoustic modelling, we helped witnesses reconstruct the architecture of the prison and their experiences of detention.
Before speaking with survivors, Forensic Architecture constructed a 3D model of Saydnaya prison, using written interviews conducted by Amnesty International researchers between December 2015 and February 2016, and satellite images of the building.
Our interview techniques, which we have come to call ‘situated testimony’, were developed by Forensic Architecture at Goldsmiths, University of London, in consultation with the university’s Forensic Psychology Unit.
Through this testimony, witnesses became active participants in the building of the model, helping our team to correct errors within it. The process sparked new memories of their experiences: as they measured rooms, located windows and doors, and placed objects in the virtual environment, they recalled more fragments of their life in detention.
Updates
Update — 7 February 2017
Amnesty published a second report on Saydnaya, based in part upon information derived from the ‘situated testimony’ conducted with FA in April 2016.
The new report alleges that Saydnaya is not only a torture prison and a site of illegal detention, but also the site of mass executions on an industrial scale, estimating that as many as 13,000 people have been executed there since 2011.
The report, entitled Human Slaughterhouse, receives widespread media coverage across Europe, the U.S. and the Middle East.
Update — 15 May 2017
The US State Department shared newly declassified information relating to Saydnaya prison.
The State Department believes it has identified the site of a crematorium within the Saydnaya complex, adding further evidence to Amnesty International’s claim that the prison is being used as a site of execution by the Assad regime.