A citizen of the people of Afrin, who fled the oppression of the Turkish occupation and its mercenaries, tells the details of what happened with him in Afrin in prisons and departments of the mercenaries the Turkish occupation backs for three years.
Citizen (Z,M), 35, of the indigenous Afrin population, was kidnapped by Turkish intelligence following the occupation of the region by the Turkish state and the mercenaries comprised under it in March 18, 2018.
Turkish intelligence transferred the citizen (Z,M) who was kidnapped to the crime department in the occupied city of Azaz, to be handed over to Abu Ali Sjo Prison, known as (Maasara), which is notorious in the area.
After investigating Z,M and torturing him on the grounds that he worked for the Autonomous Administration institutions, he was referred to court, and sentenced to three months imprisonment and was released then.
Z,M suffering did not end with only three months in prison
A few months after his release, he was kidnapped again from the city of Afrin by the so-called military police led by mercenaries Abu Haidar and Abu Arab, and he was subjected to various types of torture for a month, and he was transferred to the prison of the Military Police mercenaries in the occupied city of Al-Bab, where during the course of 4 months he was subjected to various types of torture.
(Z,M) was transferred from the military police department to its department in the city of Azaz, and he remained for months subject to all types of torture.
Civilians are tortured at so-called military police’s
According to Citizen (Z,M), the kidnapped are subjected to torture by hitting water hoses and blanco crane, and hanging them on the door, where people are hanged on the doors without their legs reaching the ground, and there is another torture method called the grill, where the kidnapped is hanged in the middle of the torture room and fire is turned on under.
After a period of months at the military police’s, in which he was subjected to all kinds of torture, he was transferred to Abu Ali Sijo prison again.
“When I was transferred to Abu Ali Sijo prison in Al Maasara, I had suspicions that I would be killed inside the prison, because whoever enters that prison does not leave him alive,” he said.
The notorious “Maasara” prison
Citizen Z, M recounts what he saw inside the notorious prison, where the kidnapped were detained in small cells, and they were given little food, represented by several olive grains in the morning, and in the evening dinner was a little bulgur and one loaf of bread.
He added, “There are hundreds of young Kurdish men and women kidnapped by mercenaries in the Maasara prison, known as Abu Ali Prison, who are subject to all kinds of violations and methods of torture.”
After five months, the kidnapped (Z,M) was transferred to the prison known as Marata Prison, as it was on the road to the village of Marata, near the city of Afrin.
He escaped death in prison, but was disabled
Again, Z, M survived in “Sijo” prison, but he suffered a disability in his right leg, as a result of the brutal torture he suffered, not to mention fractures in several parts of his body.
He spent nearly two years and three months in his prison in Marata, despite his disabled leg and body, amid the spread of epidemics and diseases inside the cells and the lack of medical supplies in them.
He paid $ 2,000 USD and 3,000 thousand TL as a ransom to get out of prison
After paying $ 2000 as well as 3000 thousand TL, he realized that the reason for his kidnapping for nearly three years was to only asking ransom, and not under the pretext of dealing with the Autonomous Administration institutions previously.
They forced him to leave Afrin
Having left prison after nearly three years and realizing what happened with him, he decided to go to his village, to meet his mother and his family, and a mercenary at a checkpoint in the entrance to his village stopped him, which he refused to disclose in order to preserve the safety of his family, and then a mercenary told him to leave the occupied city of Afrin otherwise, he will be killed.
(Z,M) confirmed that the leader of the mercenary group told him, “We are closing in on the indigenous people in Afrin in order to get out of it and Afrin will be ours, but you did not realize this from the beginning, we kidnap you and impose ransom on you only with the aim of forcing you to leave Afrin and get out of it”, this is what the mercenaries said to the citizen Z, M before he fled to Al-Shahba canton.
The citizen (Z,M) arrived in Al-Shahba a week ago with his unforgettable bitter memories.
He appealed to human rights organizations to intervene immediately, to hold the Turkish state and its mercenaries accountable for committing war crimes against humanity in Afrin, and to remove the Turkish occupation and mercenaries from Afrin.