Thousands Of Syrian Prisoners Freed From Assad Regime Prison, Residents Ask For Help Through Social Media To Find His Family

Damascus's Condition, Syria after the rebels toppled the Assad/PHOTO regime via X The White Helmets @SyriaCivivilDef

JAKARTA - Desperate Syrians turn to social media for help as they search for their lost loved ones. They are believed to have been detained by the Assad regime in a secret prison synonymous with torture and murder.

Thousands of prisoners have been released from the notorious regime's prison after rebels toppled the old dictator Bashar al-Assad, who fled to Russia. But for many families, the search continues.

Hassan Muhammad, date of arrest 2018. If you know any information, you can communicate directly with your family via comment," said one of the posts on the Facebook page of the missing person's family reported by CNN, Wednesday, December 11.

Posters on another page are looking for a doctor, who they say has never been seen since his 2013 arrest.

At least 200,000 Syrians are missing, mostly kidnapped or detained by the Assad regime or its affiliates, according to Syrian Civil Defense, known as White Helmets. The group urged Moscow to pressure Assad to reveal the location of the secret prison.

A Syrian woman who is still looking for her detained husband said government forces told her her husband had died, but her husband's body was never given to her.

"There are no words to describe my feelings," Umm Firas told Jomana Karadsheh, a CNN journalist.

"I hold on to the hope that he will be released, and our family will reunite," he said.

Meanwhile, humanitarian organizations have urged Syrian citizens not to dig back into the graves of the dead.

The mass burial site or grave must be protected and preserved to allow organized excavations (as soon as possible), the Red Cross said on Tuesday.

"This is also important to identify and ascertain the fate of those who are missing and provide answers much awaited by their families," the statement added.