Al-Khatib is not the typical kind of Syrian prison, supposedly a more “gentle” type, built to detain business owners and merchants until they pay an overpriced bill from “the Confidential Office” or go on trial for economic crimes and face sentencing from the same “Secret Office.”
Branch 251 of the General Intelligence Directorate focuses on internal security and other domestic matters. Their office, located in Damascus’s al-Khatib neighborhood, also allegedly includes a detention center in the basement.
The Office conducts raids after surveilling the targeted merchant and investigating the details of their commercial activities, the quantities of their goods, and the outflow of their funds. Eventually they bring the target to their headquarters and demand an enormous amount of money, exorbitant even for a Mukahbarat bribe, and confine those who refuse to the detention center downstairs until they finally agree to pay.
The Confidential Office
The structure of the Confidential Office is ambiguous, and it’s not clear which main entity controls it. The government announced the cancellation of this office in 2009, and its affiliation at that time was to the “General Customs Administration.” But the shutdown was only conducted in front of the media and it continued operating behind closed doors.
There are two narratives regarding the affiliation of the Secret Office. The first links it to the General Directorate of Syrian Customs, while the second suggests a direct link to the Presidential Palace. That is what the Syrian economic consultant, Younes Al-Kareem, claimed, stating its tasks and raids are carried out “under the cover of the State Security Branch.”
More than a decade ago, the Office was formally under the control of the General Directorate of Customs, but this was merely a formality. Al-Kareem added, "Its decisions and actions were made based on orders from the officer in charge. Previously, it was under the control of Hassan Makhlouf, who was later accused of corruption."
The economic consultant explained, "The Secret Office, like any other entity, is a tool of the Presidential Palace to manage the country's economic affairs. Formerly, it was working in coordination with the Syrian businessmen, Hussam Katerji and Khoudr Taher, nicknamed Abu Ali Khouder."
Younes Al-Kareem also spoke about a connection between the Secret Office and what he calls “the Asmaa Al-Assad current.”
“Its work is not just about [demanding] tribute… [the] goal is to force merchants to be loyal to Asmaa Al-Assad and follow her orders, supporting her economic [interests].”
One of its tasks, according to Al-Kareem, is “to arrange the economic environment and [reward those] who are loyal to the Asmaa Al-Assad current.”
Today, the Syrian regime apparently wants to control all the joints of the economy, no matter how small, and wants direct control over them without leaving any room or margin for anyone, so that all profits flow directly into its coffers without going through intermediaries, but through employees.
Bashar and Asma al-Assad want not only to share with big businessmen or seize their businesses, but to seize even small plastic and gum factories, dairy and cheese factories, and small clothing producers. This does not bode well for many Syrians who are losing their jobs, which is exacerbating a suffocating, years-long cost-of-living crisis.
Feeding on the monsters which they had created
Since the issuance of Decree No. 10 in 1991 in Syria, the ruling regime's economic approach has been to offer some leeway to industrialists, particularly owners of small and medium-sized enterprises. However, recent measures taken by the financial and economic office have exceeded the scope of merely collecting financial payments for the regime or the bankrupt government.
The exorbitant sums imposed, especially on owners of medium-sized projects, appear to be aimed at seizing these enterprises, which have been the backbone of the Syrian economy for decades. This would end the degree of independence they have enjoyed since the post-Cold War economic reforms.
Large businesses have enjoyed significant tax reductions since the 1990s in exchange for certain fees, payments, or contributions. However, the pre-reduction amounts have been retained in official documents, ready to be used against these entrepreneurs if necessary. This tactic was employed against Tareef Al-Akhras, a relative of Asmaa Al-Assad, and continues to be used today–regardless of any prior relationships or payments.
Even major officials who once held positions within the Office have not been spared from its economic trials. They supported the regime's predatory behavior, profited from the exploitation of their fellow citizens, and subsequently have been targeted by the same regime.
The “gentle” type of detention
Branch 251 was pulled away from their normal duties to reinforce the Assad regime’s campaign to suppress the Syrian Revolution, earning international notoriety for atrocities committed to extract confessions rather than the usual bribes.
Anwar Raslan and Eyad Al-Gharib stood trial in Koblenz, Germany for crimes against humanity committed at the Al-Khatib detention center. Raslan, a former head of investigation, was convicted on 4,000 counts of torture between 2011 and 2012–he was also found guilty of multiple counts of murder and rape. Al-Gharib was convicted of complicity in crimes against humanity for transporting more than 30 people to the Branch 251 headquarters, where they were tortured.
The prosecution of the two former jailers was possible due to a German law passed in 2002 which affirms the principle of Universal Jurisdiction and allows German courts to try defendants for crimes designated in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
“As soon as I arrived, the officers there started battering me,” Yaser Abdul Samad Hussein Karmi, a Syrian activist and former detainee of Al-Khatib, said in a 2013 interview with the Violations Documentations Center.
“It was the most brutal way of torturing in the Branch, where two members or more hit the detainee strongly all over the body, especially on the face and the head. Then they shocked me with high voltage electricity, 220 volts, on my thighs, shoulders and [genitals].”
Karmi spent four months in Al-Khatib, where he was forced into a cramped cell with 150 other detainees and frequently tortured. Diseases were rife in the packed cells, and Karmi described the appearance of ulcers and tumors among detainees which constantly leaked pus and blood. Consequently, multiple prisoners would die every day in the detention center.
Branch 251 also has a section for women detainees adjacent to the men’s cells. Karmi described how he often heard their screams as they were subject to severe torture.
This criminal regime has never changed and will never change its repressive methods. In the past, torture and imprisonment were used to extinguish the flames of the revolution, and this is an attempt to prolong this regime. Now, its survival depends on escaping the suffocating economic crisis surrounding it, so changing its methods in this prison is merely to facilitate the theft from the people, which is certainly not “gentle” as they claim.
*Cover photo: Thomas Lohnes / Pool / AFP
