An Interactive Site Documenting the Atrocities of Assad's Prisons and Turning Saidnaya into an Archive of Memory

On the thirtieth of August, which coincides with the International Day of the Disappeared, a report by the British newspaper "The Economist" highlighted the launch of a new interactive website named "The Syrian Prisons Museum," aimed at documenting the violations suffered by thousands of Syrians inside detention centers, primarily the infamous Saidnaya prison.

The site, created by a group of journalists and activists, offers a painful and realistic digital experience, recounting the details of torture and repression practiced by the former regime against detainees, and displays video testimonies from survivors, along with documents illustrating the phrases used to describe the deaths of prisoners, in addition to a virtual tour inside the execution rooms.

According to the report, Saidnaya prison represented the final stop in the journey of political detention, as it has transformed over the past 14 years into a center for mass executions, where executions were often carried out by hanging in the early hours of dawn, and in cases of overcrowding, beating or strangulation to death was resorted to.

The newspaper noted that this digital initiative represents a criminal archive and a living memorial, allowing visitors, from the families of the missing to human rights advocates and historians, to access the scale of violations, in a step that may pave the way for a long-awaited historical accountability.