Sabih Shami Al Zuhairi

interview

10.00.17
I lost my youth, health, sight, part of my hearing, and a kidney. I suffered illnesses I had never known before.
I lost my family. My brother was arrested when his two sons were three years and 18 months old, and was never seen again. He was found among those killed and buried in mass graves.

01.01
A tall man with a gun came up to the petrol station where I was working. He shouted, “Sabih, Sabih Shami? Now you will get it. You are a communist, are you? Does communism still exist here? We’ve come for you.” He put the gun to my head. One of my colleagues pushed his arm upwards and the bullet went through the ceiling. He ran off when the sound of the bullet drew attention. I complained to my employers, who were Ba’athists. They were unsympathetic. “You were lucky not to have been killed,” they said. “We can’t do anything about it. We’ve warned you before to give up communism.”

02.11
They came for me at work in an armed vehicle. My manager called me into his room and told me that the Intelligence wanted me. They handcuffed and blindfolded me and put me in the car.

02.39
Interrogations and torture sessions usually started at noon and continued until four in the afternoon. Methods of torture included being kicked, hit with hosepipes. They would strip a person of his clothes and leave him in the freezing cold. Boiling water would be poured over the body. I saw the same thing happen to other prisoners.
They tied my hands behind my back and hung me from the ceiling fan. My interrogator was told to take me for a “shower” as it was called. This involved tying my hands with wire to the ceiling fan which was switched on. When it stopped and I was cut loose I fainted. Cold water was then poured over me to wake me up, then boiling water. After that I was electrocuted until I thought I would die. I don’t know how I survived that. At 4pm two prison guards put me in a sack and threw me into a cell with other detainees.

04.10
Al Nihaya Palace Prison used to be called Al Rihab Palace. In 1963, when the Ba’athists executed communists in it, it became known as Al Nihaya (The final place) because those who went in to it never came out alive.

04.25
The interrogation started again. They wanted me to confess to which political organisation I belonged. I said I didn’t belong to one, but that I had certain beliefs. They wanted to know about them. I told them that I was willing to talk to them about my opinions as much as they wanted, and to confess to them, but I had learned them from books and not from any organisation. The torture started again. They used an electrical device, the after effects of which I suffer from still presently. I had never seen such a thing before. They would only have to place it on the back of the neck for me to be thrown up almost to the ceiling and back down again, like a frightened cat. It made me lose balance completely. I was thrown about until I lost consciousness. Then they tied a rope around my legs and dragged me along the ground. They also beat me with hosepipes. The prison was so dirty and full of lice. It was a relief just to go to the bathroom to have a change of air. But sometimes we weren’t even allowed to go to toilet. I took my clothes off and stood under the freezing cold water because I was suffering so much from the dirt and pain of torture. When the guard waiting for me outside saw I was wet. He said: So, you want to be clean, do you? He then pushed my head down the toilet and soiled my clothes.

06.57
My left ear was damaged and my eyes as well, which were already weak. So now I’m almost an invalid. I suffered temporary sexual malfunction, and am now sterile. My right kidney was destroyed. They would take me to the interrogation room and ask me to confess. When I replied I had nothing to confess to they would take me for the “shower”. The “washing room” was full of all kinds of apparatus and people covered in blood or on their last breath. I felt as if I were in a different world. One where I found out I wasn’t the only one suffering but there were many others.

08.00
Psychologically, I was in bad shape. I needed 200 injections in Hungary, where I fled to later. I would have nightmares that they had come for me again. I was being dragged and tortured. I still haven’t got over it. I still get nightmares every now and then. It was terrible when I first came out of prison. I suffered homophobia, a fear of the unknown. I would expect bad things to happen to me at anytime without reason. I had an irrational fear of being attacked without warning.

08.52 The End