Published On 4/28/2026
The “Syria Now” platform broadcast exclusive scenes of the first moments of the Syrian revolutionaries entering Saydnaya prison, on the night of the fall of the regime of ousted President Bashar al-Assad, which coincided with recent leaks – from an unknown source – that were said to have been captured on surveillance cameras inside the prison.
Saydnaya is considered one of the most terrifying prisons in Syrian memory during the era of the Assad family’s rule, as its name is associated with thousands of detainees and missing persons, including those who have been detained since 2013 without knowing their fate to this day.
The recordings – broadcast by the Syrian platform – show the surveillance screens used by the deposed regime to monitor all the cells and corridors inside the prison, which confirms that the recording devices were present after the prison guards escaped from Saydnaya.
The clips – which were taken with the official announcement of the fall of the regime on December 8, 2024 – also showed the first moments of opening the cells and liberating the detainees, whose faces showed astonishment and disbelief, amid the revolutionaries’ chants and cheers.
The scenes also recorded one of the revolutionaries touching a “teapot” that the jailers had prepared, noting that it was still hot, indicating that they had escaped shortly before the “Aggression Deterrence Forces” arrived at Saydnaya Prison.
Missing computers and records
In this context, and coinciding with the recent clips that were leaked from the cameras of Saydnaya Prison, a report by the Syrian Platform highlighted the chaos and irresponsible behavior the prison was subjected to in the first days and weeks of the fall of the regime, a time when the camera recordings were lost.
The platform’s report stated that “evidence and documents were burned and others were destroyed, and crime scenes were violated in every way,” stressing at the same time that “what is proven by the Syrians is the presence of two computers and storage memories for surveillance cameras that were present inside the prison on the night of the fall of the Assad regime.”
On December 19, 2024, the Association of Detainees and Missing Persons in Saydnaya Prison issued a report in which it spoke of “a gang linked to the deposed regime stealing computers from the control room and a number of files from the “Security Registry” inside the prison.”
The association was able – according to its statement – to identify the names of two people from the gang, through eyewitnesses.
The report says that the association’s team contacted the military authorities that were supervising the prison and provided them with the information it had obtained, but since then nothing has been released about the fate of the missing devices.
Recent leaks
On Tuesday, April 28, 2026, new recordings emerged from the missing tapes, bringing the issue back to the forefront again, and also reopening the wounds of the families of the missing, for whom Saydnaya was the last stop they reached before their traces disappeared after that.
An account on the Facebook platform bearing the name “Haider Al-Tarrab,” who identifies himself as being from Damascus, published video clips that he said were from inside the prison, as the clips – which are believed to be captured via surveillance cameras – show prisoners inside an internal courtyard sitting on the ground facing the walls, while their backs appear towards the courtyard, amid the presence of security personnel inside the perimeter of the place.
According to what the account owner reported, the footage – whose authenticity could not be confirmed – dates back to the year 2024, and also shows scenes of an administrative and clerical nature inside the prison, in addition to a security element monitoring screens believed to be designated for monitoring detainees.
However, the account that posted the clips later deleted them, after they spread widely across social media platforms, at a time when they raised rapid reactions and questions about their source and timing.
Activists raised questions about who is believed to have seized the storage units (hard drives) from inside the prison, and what is the purpose of re-publishing these clips at this time.
These leaks came a few months after calls made by the Syrian Ministry of Justice in which it demanded that those holding documents from prisons and state institutions need to hand them over, suggesting that penalties be implemented against those who share these documents with a third party or who exploit them to achieve personal goals.
