Outside the deserted political security directorate in Homs, freshly recruited armed guards are engaged in a heated debate about justice.
Sado Junaid, whose sister and brother-in-law were held and tortured in the building’s underground prison, sides with Mahmoud al-Bashar, who holds the coil of wire and black-and-white rod that were used to beat him and other detainees.
They clash with another young recruit about whether they should be allowed to torture officers from the deposed regime of Bashar al-Assad before those accused of crimes face trial – or whether suspects should be handed over to Syria’s nascent justice system. “I just want to meet one of them and torture them as they did me,” said Mahmoud al-Bashar.
Junaid added: “If you saw someone who tortured your father, your brother, your…
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Guardian Weekly (Digital) - 1 Issue, 21 February 2025