°®Âþµº

Syrian rebel groups are continuing to break into detention facilities and free incarcerated people across the country, following the toppling of President Bashar al-Assad.

While the Syrian civil defence group, the White Helmets, says it is still investigating reports from survivors from the notorious Saydnaya prison, many are sharing stories of family members and opposition members being freed from prisons.

Some of those released have become well known over the years, due to their activism before they were imprisoned, or due to the torture and dire conditions they faced behind bars.

On Saturday, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is leading the offensive, said they had freed more than 3,500 detainees from the Homs Military prison.

Videos circulating online showed prisoners emerging from dark cells confused, with bad memory, frail and sensitive to sunlight.

At least 100,000 people have been disappeared by the Assad regime over the past 14 years.

Here, we look at some of the high-profile figures who have been released from Syria’s prisons in recent days.

Tal al-Melohi, political prisoner

Tal al-Melohi, a Syrian blogger was arrested in December 2009 at the age of 19, and has for years garnered the attention of rights groups who have campaigned for her release.

Various reports say she was imprisoned, before being able to complete her schooling, for writing a blogpost about corruption in the country and penning poems on Palestine.

One report states that in 2006 she wrote an open letter to Assad, urging him to fulfil his promises of political reform in the country, before she was quickly summoned by security forces.

She was sentenced to five years in prison on charges of espionage but remained behind bars even after her term ended.

According to the Syrian Human Rights Committee, Syrian state security did not reveal what confidential information al-Melohi allegedly disclosed to the USA.

"She was not included in any of the presidential pardons issued in previous years, or any of the exchange deals that took place" the rights group said in 2020.

In 2011, Amnesty International raised the alarm over Al-Melohi's imprisonment, stating she was held incommunicado for nine months before she was transferred to Douma Women's Prison, where she was only allowed two prison visits.

The rights group said none of the contents of her blog or writings were mentioned during her trial, and ahead of her verdict the US government also "strongly" condemned the trial, calling for her immediate release and decrying the "baseless allegations of American connections that have resulted in a spurious accusation of espionage".

Online, sources say she is alive and has been freed from the Addra Prison.

Rights groups have celebrated her release while campaigning for others also to be freed.

"We’re delighted that blogger Tal-Al-Mallouhi, 33, was released on 8 December 2024. We remember the brave Razan Zaitouneh, Wael Hamada, Samira Khalil, Nazem Hammadi, Khalil Ma’touq and Bassel Khartabil" the Gulf Centre for Human Rights said.

Raghad al-Tatary, pilot

Raghad al-Tatary, a pilot who refused to bomb Hama during the uprising against Hafez al-Assad in the 1980s was freed after 43 years behind bars.

Al-Tatary was arrested at the age of 27, with local news sites saying that he was one of the oldest political prisoners in Syrian regime prisons.

Various reports state that he refused to execute orders to target sites in Hama and also refused to report his colleagues who had defected from the army.

He was accused of military disobedience and later fled to Jordan and Egypt where he applied for asylum but was rejected.

Upon returning to Syria, he was arrested on 24 November 1981 at Damascus International Airport.

Many praised his release on social media platforms, highlighting his persecution and the detention of others.

"Ragheed al-Tatari is half Circassian, and the reasons for his arrest and incarceration were never clear. Now, he is finally free, and we may hear the story. It has been a long wait for his family" one

"A New Dawn for Syria. Now is the time for justice & accountability. And to celebrate heroes like Raghad al-Tatary, freed after 43 years, jailed for refusing to bomb civilians in Hama in the 1980s"Ìý

Ali Hassan al-Ali, university student

Ali Hassan al-Ali was arrested at the age of 18 in 1986 at a checkpoint in north Lebanon.

His brother said he spent years searching for him but received contradicting information from security officers. The last he had heard about him he was told that his brother was held in a military security branch in Damascus on charges of political agitation.

However, as the war raged on in the country, his brother failed to get any information or updates on his state.

Late on 5 December, photos emerged of a bearded and exhausted man who appeared to be in his late 50s, standing in front of Hama central prison.

Friends and relatives identified him as al-Ali after noticing a resemblance to his brother.

His release has been widely celebrated, with activists using it to show the magnitude of repression under Assad.

"Kidnapped by soldiers as an 18-year-old, Ali Hassan al-Ali spent almost 40 years in Syria’s notorious torture prisons - a lifetime. And now he’s free. "They said he resembled me. I told them: ‘This is my brother!’ The feeling … it’s indescribable"Ìý

"Syrian officials and Bashar al-Assad said for years there were no political prisoners in Syria after the year 2000. But this man, Ali Hassan Al-Ali, from Taasha Akkar, went missing in Tripoli 40 years ago, and it was revealed today that he was imprisoned in Hama, and has just been freed"Ìý