Political Security, Daraa

The Political Security Branch is located on the Northern Highway leading into the city, between the vital Panorama roundabout and the Military Branch. It was moved to the new headquarters in 1988. The new strategic location was chosen so as to tighten the grip with the other branches on the main axes, crossroads and intersections of the city, and this was evident during the 2011 events.

This branch is known for the huge numbers of people it arbitrarily arrests, only to disappear once detained, and for the long periods of time during which detainees become subjected to torture and interrogation. Since 2011, residents in the city have had long conversations about the horrors and woes that the detainees at this brunch experience, including severe torture by applying heated skewers to the body, whipping for long periods of time and amputation of organs in addition to starvation and preventing medication for the ill and wounded.

One of the former detainees, who spent nine months in the dungeons at this branch, spoke to us about his experience with torture, where his leg was broken and became infected, without receiving any treatment, which resulted in amputating his leg. Even more, the executives at the prison brought his two sisters, wife and father to the branch and forced them to strip naked in front of him. They also threatened to rape them if he insisted on denying the charge against him. He thus agreed to sign a fake statement that included facts he knew nothing of. He went to tell us that this was a common and frequent thing at the Political Security Branch. Another former detainee told us that they had not provided him with water and food for two whole days, and when they finished interrogating him, they forced him to drink the urine of one of the torturers.