Located north of Damascus and surrounded by minefields to prevent detainees from escaping, Saydnaya was used by the Assad family to crush political opponents for almost 40 years. On Sunday, December 8, the Syrian rebels who brought down Bashar al-Assad’s regime announced that they had released the prison's inmates, which included Al-Qaeda members, journalists, demonstrators, doctors and students.

The brutality within the prison increased starting from 2011 and the start of the Syrian civil war. These practices, which include enforced disappearances, sham "trials," systematic deprivation, torture, sexual violence, and more, have been documented notably by Amnesty International. In 2017, the NGO denounced the Syrian state's "policy of extermination."