'Torture for the sake of torture': UK-based refugee on his time in Syrian prison

By Daniel Boal, ITV News Producer

This story contains details some people may find distressing.

"All I kept thinking was take off these handcuffs, and then you can kill me. I didn't want the plane to land once it took off, I wanted a missile to hit us," Syrian refugee Fawwaz Aloklah told ITV News on Monday.

Taken by armed men while picking up his paycheck in the city of Aleppo, Fawwaz is one of thousands of Syrians taken by Assad forces, who were then tortured and trapped, never knowing if they would see their families again.

Blindfolded and bound, Fawwaz was beaten by armed men before being hauled to the military's intelligence department.

There, he spent 35 days being beaten and left unable to sleep due to hunger, before he was presented with a document to sign.

"I didn't know what was on the document, I just know they wanted me to say what they wanted and they were going to keep torturing me until I did," he said.

After signing the document forced upon him by his captors, Fawwaz was bundled into a small plane not knowing where he would end up.

'We had lots of torture while they moved us from the car to the airport. They were hitting us all the time, they were enjoying beating us and calling us traitors'

Once on the plane, alongside others captured by the Assad regime, he recalls soldiers stacking other captives on top of one another, along with at least two dead bodies.

Flown into Damascus, Fawwaz was tortured again after stepping off the plane, still unaware of what the Assad regime had accused him of.

There was one female captive among the 51 men - she was violently assaulted and mistreated in front of them.

Taken to another department in the capital, he was cast into a room, already filled with other people.

"I was told I no longer have a name, I have a number," he said.

"The room was five and a half metres long and maybe three and a half metres long. Each of us had a tile, it was maybe 30cm by 30cm, on this we could only sit or stand. I did not have a tile for the first two days."

For the next five months and 10 days, Fawwaz shared this room with 86 people.

At least 25 people died while they were locked in the room with Fawwaz. Their bodies were taken out of the room, and their place was filled with new captives.

"The room was five and a half metres long and maybe three and a half metres long. The problem is that you are unable to sleep because the space is too crowded," Fawwaz said

"My biggest dream at that time was to be able to lay down. I dreamt that I was in a room alone," Fawwaz said, "this is the only dream that I had for the entire time. I just dreamt of somewhere that I could sleep.

"Sometimes I was seeing my second baby because he was so close to me, seeing him in my dream gave me hope."

Fawwaz has sleeping problems to this day, something he believes is down to the torture he experienced at the hands of Assad forces.

He added: "In the Palestine department - that is what they called it - they tortured us many times. Torture for the sake of torture. They would drag us out into the cold and throw freezing water over us. Then they would beat us with pipes.

"They would wait for the pipe wounds to heal on our backs before they did it again.

"In those five months I saw many people die," he said, adding that he saw their corpses being thrown into the toilets.

Over the weekend more than 50 years of Assad rule in Syria crumbled after rebels took the capital Damascus, forcing President Bashar al-Assad to flee to Moscow.

Peaceful anti-government protests in 2011 were met with violence and spilled out into a 14-year long civil war - one that has left more than half a million people dead, and half of Syria's 23 million pre-war population displaced.

Among those still left scarred by the conflict are the people who were taken and tortured by Assad's forces.

Used as a tool for repression, thousands of families still bear the psychological toll of not knowing where their loved ones are.

After five months trapped on his 30cm by 30cm tile, Fawwaz had his number called by the guards.

"I knew I was leaving, I just didn't know where. I wasn't sure if I was going to be killed.," he said.

Moved to a military police facility, Fawwaz was finally able to lie down for the first time in over five months.

He was then transferred to Adra Central Prison, where, he says, everyone was branded a "terrorist".

After meeting someone in the prison who knew where his family was from, he was able to get a message to his father.

After raising around $1,000 (£785), Fawwaz's father was able to pay for a solicitor and his son was able to get a date in court where he was cleared of terrorism charges.

However, after thinking that he was going to be freed, he was then picked up by another military department where he was informed he was guilty of other crimes against the Syrian government.

Forced to bribe the police holding him, he was eventually freed after nine months in captivity and was finally able to see his family.

Upon returning home, the father of four was told by ISIS, who had taken over his village, that he would be unable to return to teaching.

In order to make money for his family, he was forced to become a porter.

With conflict still raging in Syria, and traumatised by his months in captivity, Fawwaz was smuggled into Turkey in 2019. He had been left with no legal route to secure his family safe passage into Turkey.

Eventually, he and his family were able to secure asylum in the UK. While they are currently being housed in temporary accommodation, Fawwaz says he is "happy to know that his family are safe".

"Everything is okay here, yes if we had a house it would be perfect, but I love this country. It is somewhere we can be safe," he added.

"I wish my country would be a safe country for all Syrians, irrespective of what they believe or to whom they belong. At the end of the day we are all Syrian. "What I want is accountability for the people who are responsible for what happened and bring them to justice."

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