torture | Al Majalla

Victims become hunters in new film about torture in Syrian prisons

'Ghost Trail' is a timely French thriller about Assad-era atrocities, revealing what went on in the regime's darkest corners and how justice can be done by those determined enough to find the culprits

Areej Jamal 03, Jan 2025

A woman inspects the cells of the famous Sednaya prison north of Damascus after the fall of the Assad regime.

AP/Hussein Malla

Blood-curdling tales emerge from Assad's torture dungeons

Unravelling the horrors perpetrated in the darkest corners of Syria's prisons is chilling, nauseating, and crucial to understanding how this infernal machinery came into being—and continued operating

Samer Abou Hawwach 13, Dec 2024

Khalil spent two years and three months in Assad prisons, he was released due to pressures by international organizations.

Assad Regime, Opposition Accused of Exploiting Detainees' Agenda

The Assad regime’s security authorities have inflicted large-scale torture against detainees who were arrested during the popular protests that took place in mid-March 2011. The many international…

Jiwan Soz 08, Jul 2022

A number of Syrians gather in front of a Frankfurt Court where the trial of Syrian doctor Alaa M. over torture charges is being held. (Supplied)

Syrian Doctor’s Germany Trial, A Message to Intl Community

*Warning: This article contains graphic descriptions of violence and torture. German authorities are prosecuting a Syrian doctor accused of committing crimes against humanity during his…

Jiwan Soz 04, Feb 2022

Evin Prison: Mullah’s Crime Scene

Hassan Zarif Nazarian may not be disturbed as much as other detainees by the scenes of violence practiced in the video footage leaked from the notorious Evin prison in Tehran. Being held in the…

Rowshan Qassim - Erbil 10, Sep 2021

Popular
Editor's Pick

PKK guerrillas scan for firing positions as they conduct military exercises in the mountains of northern Iraq's Kurdish autonomous region, 18 November 2006.

DAVID FURST / AFP

Politics

What next after historic PKK decision to disband?

11 May 2025

Türkiye hailed the move to dissolve what it deems a terrorist group that claimed over 40,000 lives, but vows the fight would continue should the process collapse

Omer Onhon

Al Majalla

Business & Economy

Trump's 'big' agenda in Saudi Arabia

11 May 2025

A high-powered delegation will accompany him on his first official foreign trip of his second term as US president, reflecting a diverse agenda, spanning trade, defence and geopolitics

Maher Chmaytelli

Kashmiri men react after the ceasefire announcement between India and Pakistan, in Srinagar May 10, 2025.

REUTERS/Sharafat Ali

Politics

A nerve-wracking ceasefire holds between India and Pakistan—for now

11 May 2025

Tensions will simmer even as they step back from full-blown war

The Economist

Culture & Social Affairs

The Israel-Palestine 'conflict' through the lens of novelists

12 May 2025

Palestinian novelists continue to tell their stories, demanding the attention of a world that has often looked away. Meanwhile, Israeli writers grapple with existential questions and self-doubt.

Samir Qasimi