Tadmor Prison was situated in the deserts of eastern Syria, roughly 200 kilometres north-east of Damascus.
The facility was initially built by the French Mandate forces after World War One to be used as military barracks, but when it was handed over to the Syrian Government, it quickly became known as Tadmor Prison.
Tadmor was renowned as one of the worst prisons in the world, and its reputation of abuse, torture and neglect has caused much concern for human rights activists.
Throughout the 1980's, Tadmor Prison held thousands of political and civilian Syrian prisoners, and are known to have inflicted a great amount of suffering on these inmates. During these periods, it was known for its harsh conditions, excessive torture and summary executions. The Syrian poet Faraj Bereqdar, who was held as a political prisoner at Tadmor for five years, labelled the prison as a “kingdom of death and madness.”
Prisoners were subjected to medieval forms of torture and execution, such as being dragged to death or being cut into pieces by an axe. Whilst such acts frequently occurred as a result of some form of insubordination, prisoners were often selected at random, to keep them in a perpetual state of fear.
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