Report: Hezbollah holds Assad's opponents in secret prisons far from regime's eye

According to a report on a well-known Syrian opposition website, the Lebanese terror organization has established several prisons in the areas where it enjoys the biggest dominance in Syria.

By MAAYAN GROISMAN
Updated: FEBRUARY 18, 2016 17:43
Hezbollah supporters during a televized speech by the group's leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut (photo credit: REUTERS)
Hezbollah supporters during a televized speech by the group's leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Hezbollah uses the control it has recently gained in large parts of Syria to form private enclaves where it enforces its own law and order by torturing Syrian regime opponents as well as opponents to Hezbollah's presence in Syria in secret prisons it has established.
According to a report on al-Souria.Net, a well-known Syrian opposition website, the Lebanese terror organization has established several prisons in the areas where it enjoys the biggest dominance in Syria: the Homs countryside and Damascus countryside.
Regime opponents told the website that the most famous Hezbollah prison is the "Yellow Hole" which is located in Homs. According to the report, the prisoners in Hezbollah's jails enter Syria's missing list and the organization refuses to release them, even if Syrian President Bashar Assad himself exerts pressure.
Hence, Hezbollah's private prisons might create a rift between Assad and his erstwhile ally Hezbollah which enjoys growing sovereignty in Syria. Another danger to Assad's rule that might derive from this is a rift between Syria’s Alawite and Shi'ite populations, since Hezbollah tortures in these prisons not only regime opponents, but also Alawite regime supporters who object to its presence in Syrian towns owing to its violations of the rights of the local population.
A regime opponent whose brother is jailed in the "Yellow Hole" told the website that officers in the Syrian security services told his family that there's no hope for their son's release. He added that "even one of Assad's officers I have spoken with told me that his relative is in the prison, but he has no way to get him out."