A 57-year-old Syrian man who “disappeared” after being arrested by al-Assad’s thugs as a teenager has been seen by stunned and stunned relatives outside a prison after being freed after four decades.
In 1986, Syrian soldiers arrested 18-year-old university student Ali Hassan al-Ali in northern Lebanon and his family had not seen or heard from him in more than four decades.
But on Thursday, his younger brother Moammar Ali got the biggest surprise of his life when, after 39 years of searching, he found Ali.
His phone exploded with texts and calls when people sent him a photo of a man in his 50s standing outside Hama central prison in northern Syria.
His friends said the man looked like Moammar and he realized “this is my brother.”
He said: “He has come out of prison as an old man.”
Moammar was just one of thousands of people finally released from prison after decades of being locked up.
Rebels freed inmates from prisons in Aleppo and Hama after they took control and toppled the regime of ousted President Bashar al-Assad.
Moammar Ali had the biggest surprise of his life when, after 39 years of searching, he found his older brother Ali, pictured on the right, outside a prison, now 57 years old.
Ali appears in the photo when he ‘disappeared’ at only 18 years old
Rebels parade in the streets of Hama after forces captured the central city on December 6.
People wait today as teams carry out an investigation in secret compartments of the Sednaya prison after the fall of the Assad regime in Damascus.
talking to the guardianMoammar said: ‘There was no place in Syria that we did not visit. We went all over the country asking what happened to him. One day they would admit they had him in prison, the next day they would deny it.’
The last information he received was that he was detained accused of political agitation.
But now he will finally be reunited with his brother, who is now 57 years old.
However, rapidly changing political dynamics mean it is difficult for authorities to identify who has been released.
Ali has not yet been able to speak to his missing brother and has spent the last day trying to locate who took the photo.
And he added: “When I come home, we will have a big celebration.” But until I smell it, until I can say, ‘Here it is, my brother,’ nothing counts.’
Last night, rescuers were fighting to free Syria’s alleged hellhole, the “Red Prison”, but rebels who freed caged women and children are reportedly still unable to access the trapped men.
The Saydnayah prison near Damascus, nicknamed the “Human Slaughterhouse,” is said to contain “high-security underground” cells in its Red Building.
Unverified footage reportedly shows the rebels “opening cells one by one” by knocking down walls, and they are said to have rescued “hundreds of inmates, including women and young children.”
Teams investigate secret compartments of Sednaya prison
People stand on the roof of Saydnaya prison as Syrian rescuers search for hidden basements.
Rebels inspect cells at infamous Saydnaya military prison
But there are men trapped in cells three stories underground in a section called “Red Prison,” some have said.
According to Al Jazeera, between 5,000 and 13,000 inmates have been hanged in President Bashar al-Assad’s military prison, dubbed the “industrial torture chamber,” since 2011.
A heartbreaking video showed a young boy emerging from open cell doors looking confused as rebel soldiers shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’, meaning ‘God is greater’, as they freed hundreds of inmates.
It comes as an alleged Russian plot to spread fake news about an Al-Assad “plane crash” has been uncovered.
Ukraine’s Center for Strategic Communication and Information Security posted on X to claim that Russia ‘covered its tracks’ of helping al-Assad escape by spreading false reports that he died in an accident.
A man released from prison could not speak when people asked him who he was.
Militants frantically cut the locks on Saydnaya prison cell doors to free hundreds of female prisoners and their children after the brutal al-Assad regime was overthrown.
In a video posted on X, the women screamed with joy as they were freed, where some had been imprisoned for decades. They were loaded onto buses waiting outside the prison before being taken home.
Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with al-Assad at the Kremlin in Moscow in July
Rebel forces launching a lightning offensive in Syria aim to topple the government of President Bashar al-Assad, their Islamist leader said in an interview published Dec. 6.
Local residents celebrate after opposition forces led by HTS (Hayyet Tahrir al-Sham) took control of Hama city center and surrounding villages on December 6.
The rebels who were filmed releasing prisoners in the Syrian prison said: “We celebrate with the Syrian people the news of the liberation of our prisoners and the release from their chains and the announcement of the end of the era of injustice in the prison of Saydnaya.”
Omar Saoud, a local activist, said in a video: ‘Three floors underground, there is a prison known as the red prison, which has not yet been opened.
“They can’t open it because it requires a certain mechanism, and the soldiers and officers who were here are gone.”
An Amnesty International investigation claimed that Syrian authorities had committed crimes against humanity and that thousands of inmates at the prison 30 kilometers north of Damascus had been killed, tortured and exterminated.
They determined that violations committed at the brutal facilities over the past decade under dictator Bashar al Assad’s regime, which has seen more than 10,000 political detainees disappear, were part of an attack on civilians.
The release of thousands of prisoners has renewed hope for families who have not heard from their loved ones for years.
Screenshots of released inmates have circulated on WhatsApp groups across Syria as their relatives struggle to try to identify familiar faces.