State Security, Daraa

The State Security Branch is located north of the Inter-city Bus Station at the entrance of the city, near Basil Park and the Daraa Museum.

Formerly a spacious flat in a building, this branch was established in 1993.

This branch is distinguished by its location at the main entrance to the city, where all buses and vehicles coming into the city run just south of it.

Similar to some other security branches, the State Security Branch in Daraa is notorious for its extreme brutality in torturing detainees prior to investigation, which aims to kill and crush a prisoner’s slightest spirit of resistance or attempt to conceal information. Despite all this, the branch comes third in terms of severity of torture, in a list topped by the Air Security and Military Security, and then State Security and finally Political Security Branch.

This branch is also characterised by being an independent building, which has been the new policy of modern security branches in Syria in general.

This branch had gone a long way in practising arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance and in the number of deaths resulting during investigations. It is also well known for the practice of cutting off limbs during interrogation of victims in order to force them to admit things that they have not even committed. Like the other branches, torture is largely practised here, including by whipping, burning and drowning in boiling water in addition to sexual assault against men and women alike.

In fact, we met with a couple of former detainees who had survived from this branch. They had heart-breaking testimonies reflecting the horrors and woes of the torture they saw and experienced. Additionally, detainees are prevented from sleeping by virtue of strong, on-and-off lights and disturbing sounds echoing throughout the branch during the night.