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The Turkish army participated in the torture and filmed most of the rape cases in Afrin city
Nadia Suleiman, 24, spoke with all boldness and courage after her illegal detention, about cases of torture and rape in the prisons of the Hamza Division and the Turkish intelligence.
Nadia Suleiman, a resident of Afrin in the countryside of Aleppo, which was occupied by the Turkish Armed Forces in March 2018, said that she received a voice message from the phone of her detained husband by the (Hamza Division) whose name is (Ahmed Rashid Aref Rashid (26 years old) asking her His visit, and that the voice message arrived on (WhatsApp) on August 2, 2018, with the voice of her husband requesting that she prepare herself, for his visit, and that the gunmen allowed his visits from his family. He told me he received the same message …
And Ahmed Rashid Aref, from the village of Bibaka in the Bulbul / Bulbul sub-district in Afrin, was kidnapped by the Syrian National Army after storming his home, on May 25, 2018.
After that, Nadia said, everything changed. As it turned out that the audio message was to lure her and her husband’s friend to kidnap them, as she was arrested, and she never met her husband …
Nadia stated that she was beaten in the detention center and after she was interrogated 25 times, she was thrown into a single small room, and later she was transferred to a larger prison with about 40 male and female detainees, and then she was held in a prison with 11 women and two children (a seven-month-old baby and a one-and-a-half-year-old child).
She added that the signs of torture were evident on the faces of the detained women, and that a Turkish officer told her of his ability to save her if she accepted to marry him, and that he told her … we know your innocence, I can save you easily if you accept to marry me and I will smuggle you to Turkey … She refused it so that he would start torturing her.
She recounted that she was detained with 11 women and two children, and cold water was sprayed on them and the two children in the harsh winter, and that they were lying on the floor of the room without a cover and they were not given blankets or sponges and they were deprived of water, and food was served every 3 or 4 days once One and deprived a nursing infant of milk.
Nadia pointed out that they tortured her and photographed her and that she experienced torture at first, and then rape several times.
She stated that other women were raped and that she witnessed the death of two people under torture.
She reported that she was transferred to an isolation cell after she tried to commit suicide to salvation, and for months she lived on a loaf of bread and some cheese served to her every 3 or 4 days once. What led to her illness and her nervous breakdown, and she also talked about being deprived of her from going to (the toilet) and depriving her in prison, and that they used to collect waste in bags until they opened the door for them every 3 or 4 days once, and they were given only half a minute to empty the bags, She was tortured in several ways, including “blanco / blanca”, implanting needles in the fingers and nails, dipping them in apple cider vinegar and salt, pulling out nails and other methods, in addition to rape, harassment and insults …
Nadia added that each of the women who was detained with her had encountered multiple forms of torture and that women were subjected to harassment and rape, and she said that the sounds of torture were still stuck in her mind and could not be forgotten, especially from the other rooms within the prison where there were young men, men, and children, and their voices were harsh and unforgettable. Can be described as …
Nadia stated that her clothes were removed repeatedly, during the interrogation, and after that, when the charges against her were rejected, she was taken to the torture room and hung to the ceiling with her hands tied from the back, and she was beaten and other women were beaten with a hose, cable, and iron, and her lean body was subjected to electric shocks. That after she was subjected to many types of physical torture, she would faint, but they used to drop her into the water and bring him electric current in order to wake up.
Details narrated by Nadia Suleiman, documented by audio files:
The former kidnapper by the (Hamzat Division) militia, Nadia Suleiman, said that she was raped several times inside the secret prison in which she was kidnapped in the Mahmoudiya neighborhood in Afrin city, and in a bold and strong testimony that already confirmed her exposure and the exposure of other women to rape by the Turkish-backed militia gunmen, She said that she and others were tortured in various ways in front of, and with the participation of soldiers and members of the Turkish intelligence, where they remained for 4 months held in a prison, where they did not know its location, to be transferred after that to the prison (Al-Hamza Division).
Nadia, who managed to escape with great difficulty and reached a safe place (outside Afrin), recounted the story of her arrest and repeated torture and torture of women and youths, the elderly, and children. They are raped in front of their children, and she confirmed that she knew at least two people were killed under torture in the prisons of the Hamza Division.
She also talked about the armed men, accompanied by Turkish-speaking people, photographing them several times, once naked, and once in clean clothes that they presented to them and then took, and in the videos they made them deny that they had been subjected to any torture and that prison life and conditions were luxurious, and forced them to thank Turkey and Erdogan in one of the videos. In another video they made them admit to coercion, beatings, and torture that they are terrorists who were involved in or planned bombings and agents for the (SDF) and the PKK.
Nadia also recounted that they decided to release them 878 days after the kidnapping, following the discovery of their location after the incursion of the prison by angry demonstrators from Eastern Ghouta, as a result of a dispute between a militant from the Hamzat Division and killing / wounding a civilian from Ghouta, where they were transferred to a prison in Azaz. By the military police, and later the Military Police handed them over to the Hamza Division, and its commander, Saif Abu Bakr, personally supervised the filming and torture of them naked, and later they were transferred to a prison in the city of al-Bab, and from there to a prison in Afrin, “Maaratah”, to be presented for the first time to the judiciary.
Nadia said that the trial was routine. We were not allowed to do anything, neither a lawyer nor a power of attorney, and they refused even to listen to us. Nadia said that she told the commanders of the military individual (she did not remember his name) and the court judge, whose name was (Ahmed Saeed), about her and other women being tortured and raped repeatedly and that the judge laughed and mocked He threatened her and demanded that she conceal it and not speak at all to protect herself and her honor, and that he forced her, like the rest of the militia leaders in prisons, to sign papers in Arabic and papers in Turkish without being allowed to read their content. She leaves, speaks to any media outlet, or writes something on social media.
Nadia said that her family agreed with a smuggler to pay $ 300 to get her out of Afrin, and she reached a safe place, but the fate of her husband is still unknown, and he was the one who was kidnapped a few days before she was kidnapped.
Nadia says:
I was at my girlfriend and I received a message on my phone from my husband’s number (Ahmed Rashid Aref Rashid) asking me to visit him in a prison in Azaz, and it is the first time that we contacted him … On 8/2/2018, a car came driving people I don’t know, but he was with them One of my husband’s friends, I found out later that they also sent the message to him from my husband’s phone, we entered a military zone, separated my husband’s friend and took him to another place, they took me to a room and they interrogated me, my phone and my handbag were confiscated, and they were searched, I was taken to another room in it. Several people, one of whom speaks the Turkish language, I was able to find out the name of one of the investigators, who is (Abu al-Laith al-Haskawi). They accused me of working for America, the forces of the Syrian Democratic Forces, the regime and Russia, each time the accusation was different, I denied everything, I am a civilian looking for her kidnapped husband … I was married In a small, dark room, around midnight, the door was opened, my eyes and my hands were tied and I ran to another room, I sat on the floor, they asked me to unlock the phone, there were people who spoke Turkish, and someone would translate my words … I did not speak anything, they were accusing me of everything … they took me back alone, And I was transferred to another place and another, They started hitting me, punching and kicking me, and depriving me of urination, food and water … Four months have passed since this condition …
I was transferred again to another prison, and they put me in a room where we were 11 women, and two children (a 7-month-old child, and a one-and-a-half-year-old child). The names of those with me are: Longin Abdo, her sister Rujin Abdo, Nazli Naasan, Roshin Amouni, Rukan Mulla Muhammad, Farida. Hussain, Esther Ban Abdo, Valentina Abdo, Newroz Bakr and another name you didn’t remember… I’m Nadia Suleiman. The two children have their names (Eid, Organ).
The torture was daily, individually or collectively, and we were repeatedly raped, they used to give us narcotic pills, sometimes they sprayed cold water on all of us, even young children were not exempt from the torture, they refused to give us blankets, or floor carpets, in the winter we almost suffered from the disease Young children were crying from illness, cold and hunger … Also, they would insert needles into the finger and under the nails and spray them with apple cider vinegar, repeatedly and permanently, and sometimes they sprinkle salt and tie us to the ceiling so that we can hang down.
I was interrogated for 25 days continuously, accompanied by torture, various charges were fabricated, I was photographed and compelled to admit that I was associated with the PKK, and that I was a leader planning to carry out operations targeting Turkey and the Turkish army … We could not refuse anything, they robbed us of our will and everything … . They hit me with a hose of water, and cut iron with sharp ends like a sword, they used to put lemon salt under the fingernails, and they always insulted us, and mocked us as slaves, and they had the decision to do what they wanted us … Once I tried to commit suicide to salvation, they hit me with a sharp object On my head I lost consciousness, my blood flowed from my nose and mouth, they left me in the midst of the blood, and after that they took me alone, in which I stayed for a long time until I lost the sense of time … I was pulled from the solo by my hair, and I was repeatedly lured, and deprived of my clothes of water from food, from going to the toilet … Our connections with the world were lost, no one knows where we are and how we are and we do not know what is going on outside …
Our tragic situation lasted for six months inside the Hamzat Division prison in the Mahmoudiya neighborhood in Afrin city. There was chaos and we heard shooting and chants. Later, we learned that we were in the Military Police Department, and that fighting broke out between settlers, which led to angry protesters storming the prison in which we are being held, which belongs to the Hamzat Division. We knew that we were on May 29, 2020, and this is a day I will not forget …
We only stayed for two days in a military police prison, two days without torture and they gave us a little food and water, but they did not allow us to shower, which was a dream for us, I do not remember the last time I took a shower …
After 48 hours, the Military Police handed us back to the Hamza Division, the same previous faces, we were transferred to an area called (the village of al-Kabirah) in the countryside of Afrin, and from there we were transferred to the Azaz area, and we were placed in somewhat better prison conditions, we were taken for investigation again, and they By filming us and taking our photos repeatedly, they told us that we must save what is on paper and record it in front of the cameras. I read the text that included that I am a terrorist, an agent working for the PKK and the Syrian Democratic Forces, and that I was leading a group that was planning to target Turkish officers and Turkish soldiers and that I was planning To carry out bombing operations in Turkey…. We were hit again, and they gave us hours to memorize the content of the paper … I had no opportunity to refuse that, so I accepted under threat. The supervisor of the investigation and the information received was a person named (Saif Abu Bakr). Hamza. In the presence of Abu Bakr, we were forced to sign and fingerprint papers in Arabic and Turkish after filming several videos containing confessions that we were terrorists, without knowing what to fingerprint or sign …
He filmed us again several times, once we admit that we are terrorists planning to carry out bombings, a video in which we praise the conditions and conditions of our detention, and that the place inside the prison is serviced and well-preserved, once they asked us to thank Turkey, Erdogan, the National Army and the security services and that they protected and reformed us … … despite all that They did it to us we thanked him and we thanked them. Whenever I was, or we were, refusing to do so, they would strip our clothes and force us to film everything, and we could only carry out their orders in front of the video. We thanked Erdogan and thanked them …
After that, we were transferred to a prison in the city of al-Bab, we stayed there for a month, we were transferred from al-Bab to Maaratah prison in Afrin, and every time we were re-interrogated and obliged to admit that we are guilty, terrorists, and that they treat us well and our conditions in prison are luxurious.
In Maaratah prison for the first time, we were referred to the court, and the judiciary, at first the military judge, I don’t remember his name, was in a hurry to finish the case, and he asked me, as they asked us in the prison to remain silent and not say anything, and wait for the judge to speak and that in exchange for our silence we will get release, As part of an amnesty they would issue, but I didn’t care. I spoke to the judge about torture, rape, harassment, beatings, prison conditions, and that we are innocent civilians. We were forced to make video statements under torture, and that they kidnapped me while I was going to visit my detained husband. The judge interrupted me and asked to return me to prison and threatened me. They started beating me again, the next day, they brought me into the courtroom, and I was forced to sign papers whose contents were unknown, in Turkish and Arabic …
Nadia adds, “We were referred to another court, which appeared to be civil this time, and I refused to remain silent despite threatening to kill me if I spoke. The judge knew about himself and said that his name is (Ahmed Saeed). I told him how I was tortured and raped, and how the rest of the women were subjected to me in The prison, the rest of the detainees were tortured, and I witnessed the killing of two people under torture, the first named (Bilal Abdo) and the second (Uncle Hassan, father of three daughters)…. I expected that the judge would listen and do justice to me, but it turned out that he wanted me to talk for fun, he was smiling and mocking me, he threatened me that I would not tell anyone about these stories to protect my honor and my family and so that I would not be killed, pursued and returned to the same circumstances …
Nadia said: Hassan was the father of 3 girls who had been severely tortured. He had lost his voice from torture. They did Bilal Abdo.
Nadia Suleiman was released after spending 878 days in the prisons of the pro-Turkish militias, during which she moved within 9 prisons, in 4 cities under the control of the Turkish army, of which 90 days she spent in prisons under the direct supervision of the Turkish intelligence services.
The (Hamzah Division) would not have revealed the fate of these kidnapped women, and the fate of others had not been stormed into the (Hamzat) prison by angry demonstrators from the countryside of Damascus in Afrin, Aleppo city, where they went out in demonstrations demanding the expulsion and accountability of the “Hamzat Division,” a faction affiliated with Turkey, after Violent clashes with her.
On May 28, 2020, a sensation arose after 11 women (some of them naked) and two children, one of them a baby, were found inside a secret prison of the “Hamza Division” working within the “National Army” in Afrin, which is under the control of militants loyal to Turkey.
The gunmen in Damascus countryside and demonstrators were surprised to find 11 women and two children, one of whom is a baby, including women who were detained while they were naked, in addition to other detainees held by the “Hamzat Division”.
