Najmeh Nasser holds a photograph of her son Youssef, who disappeared in the prisons of the former regime, on Nov. 19 in Otaybeh, east of Damascus. (Credit: Mohammad Yassin/L'Orient-Le Jour)
Shaker al-Habouss dips his bread into plates of muhammara, labneh and fool as if his life depended on it. He shovels the food in and, unable to chew, continues speaking with his mouth full about his years of horror in Sednaya prison.What happened to his front teeth? He was forced to swallow five of them in his cell, with the blood gushing, whenever he was beaten under the impassive gaze of Sergeant Manhal Sleiman.“A word from him, and neither Assad nor Putin could do anything. He would say ‘soldiers,’ and blows would rain down across my entire body,” he recalled.Shaker al-Habouss in his living room in Ghabaghib, in the province of Daraa, on Nov. 18. (Credit: Mohammad Yassin/L’Orient-Le Jour) The former rebel fighter was released on Dec. 8, 2024, the day Bashar al-Assad’s regime fell, from the infamous human slaughterhouse where he had...
Shaker al-Habouss dips his bread into plates of muhammara, labneh and fool as if his life depended on it. He shovels the food in and, unable to chew, continues speaking with his mouth full about his years of horror in Sednaya prison.What happened to his front teeth? He was forced to swallow five of them in his cell, with the blood gushing, whenever he was beaten under the impassive gaze of Sergeant Manhal Sleiman.“A word from him, and neither Assad nor Putin could do anything. He would say ‘soldiers,’ and blows would rain down across my entire body,” he recalled.Shaker al-Habouss in his living room in Ghabaghib, in the province of Daraa, on Nov. 18. (Credit: Mohammad Yassin/L’Orient-Le Jour) The former rebel fighter was released on Dec. 8, 2024, the day Bashar al-Assad’s regime fell, from the infamous human slaughterhouse...