A former equestrian champion was allegedly held captive and subjected to torture for 21 years in a Syrian prison. This purported ordeal began after he emerged victorious over Bashar al Assad’s older brother in a competition.
Adnan Kassar, a distinguished equestrian who achieved numerous gold medals and served as the captain of the national equestrian team throughout the 1980s, shared a close friendship with Assad. Assad’s elder brother, Bassel, was also deeply involved in equestrian sports.
Bassel, who was initially set to succeed his father as the Syrian president, tragically passed away in a car accident in 1994. This sudden event led to Assad abandoning his career as an eye doctor in London to return to Syria and assume the political responsibilities.
But Kassar and Assad’s friendship would take a turn for the worst when the pair competed against each other and Kassar emerged victorious.
Speaking to Sky News about the horror consequences he faced, following the collapse of Assad’s brutal regime, he recalled how the crowd lifted him onto their shoulders after he won the competition, describing it as a moment of pure joy.
‘For Bassel, it wasn’t the same,’ Kassar said. ‘That day marked the beginning of my nightmare’.
After the competition, Kassar was arrested over vague accusations which he believes were made up by a jealous Bassel.
The former champion told the news channel how his detention spiralled into a decades long ordeal, filled with brutality and psychological abuse.
Adnan Kassar, pictured, who won several gold medals and captained the national equestrian team in the 1980s was a close friend of Assad, whose elder brother Bassel was also a fellow equestrian
Kassar and Assad’s friendship would take a turn for the worst when the pair competed against each other and Kassar emerged victorious
Bassel (pictured centre) was the original heir to the Syrian presidency before he died in a car crash in 1994, leading Assad to return from London where he was working as an eye doctor to take on the political role
Kassar claims he was initially kept underground for six months, while suffering torrents of physical abuse at the hands of Assad’s men.
He was then transferred to Syria’s notorious Sednaya Prison, dubbed the ‘human slaughterhouse’, where there he said ‘the torture only got worse’.
Assad previously denied both killing thousands of detainees at Sednaya as well as using a secret crematorium to dispose of their remains in 2017.Â
Many detainees have revealed they were raped while imprisoned, and in some cases, forced to rape other inmates.
Torture and severe beatings from guards were used as a regular form of punishment and degradation, often leading individuals to life-long damage, disability, and even death.
Cell floors were covered with the blood and pus from injured prisoners, according to a 2017 Amnesty report, with the corpses of dead detainees collected by prison guards at 9am each morning.
But with no end in sight, Kassar then explained how the awful treatment intensified after Bassel’s sudden death.
‘They blamed me for his death, every year on the anniversary of his passing, the torture intensified,’ he said.
After enduring the harsh conditions at Sednaya, Kassar was then relocated to Tadmur Prison where he spent seven-and-a-half years.
The military prison (Pictured from an aerial view) is famed for its inhumane conditions, systematic torture and mass executions
Nooses were found after rebel fighters liberated the Sednaya Military Prison near Damascus
Ropes are seen strewn across the floor of the facility, which has become notorious for its brutal treatment of inmates
People kick a poster depicting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad after Syria’s army command notified officers that al-Assad’s 24-year rule had ended
He recalled Assad’s men piercing his ear one morning, before breaking his jaw in the evening, with acts such a praying met with severe punishment.
 ‘For praying, they lashed me 1,000 times. My feet were torn apart, my bones exposed,’ Kassar told the news channel.
Along the years, many activists have raised his case and several international appeals were put forward in a bid to free him from his imprisonment.
But his name was repeatedly left out of amnesty decrees, and he was left to rot in numerous Syrian hellhole prisons for over two decades.
Kassar was finally released on June 16, 2014, after prolonged pressure from international human rights groups but has stayed silent on his ordeal until now.
‘After years of imprisonment, torture, and injustice, the revolution finally toppled the dictatorial regime,’ he added.
But Assad’s atrocities and human rights violations spread beyond prison walls after UN weapons inspectors returned ‘overwhelming and indisputable’ evidence of the use of nerve gas in Syria in 2013.
Assad faced calls for international military action against his government after the alleged chemical weapons attacks in the suburbs of Damascus.
Then UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the August 21 attack ‘the worst use of weapons of mass destruction in the 21st century.’
The United States said that attack may have killed more than 1,400, including hundreds of civilians.Â
The Syrian opposition accused pro-Assad forces of having carried out the attacks, but Assad denied having used chemical weapons and asserted that, if such weapons had been used, rebel forces were to blame.Â
Assad’s tactics against the rebels continued to draw international condemnation even when his forces refrained from using chemical weapons.
