Al-Khatib prison

Al-Khatib prison is a detention and torture center in the Muhajreen neighborhood of central Damascus, Syria. It was operated by Branch 251 of the Syrian General Intelligence Directorate during the era of Ba'athist Syria. Al-Khatib, like many prisons under the regime of Bashar al-Assad, is known from testimonies given by former detainees and survivors who recount the poor conditions and use of systematic and generalized torture that included rape and sexual violence. The conditions caused a significant number of deaths at Al-Khatib, some of which have been identified in the pictures taken by photographer César. During the Syrian civil war the prison held demonstrators, political prisoners, and human rights activists. Anwar Raslan, a former Syrian colonel who was convicted of crimes against humanity in Germany, was in command of Branch 251 that managed the prison.

Prison data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).