Syria: from regime jails to exile in Sweden, the impossible return of Omar Al Shogre
Omar Al Shogre speaks in Washington on war crimes in Syria, March 2020. Samuel Corum / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP
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2 min
Since 2011, more than five million Syrians have fled the war and gone into exile abroad.
With the support of Russia, President Bashar al-Assad has been organizing a conference since Wednesday in order to "facilitate their return".
Today a refugee in Sweden, Omar Al Shogre is a miracle.
He spent several years in the regime's jails and in particular in the dreaded Saidnaya prison.
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A minor at the time of his arrest, Omar Al Shogre was tortured, starved, he suffered the worst abuse behind bars.
So coming back to Syria is just unimaginable for this young man now 25 years old.
“
We would be very stupid to go back to Syria.
This diet has not changed!
Its political prisons like Saidnaya, or Branch 215, still exist.
These are slaughterhouses where people get skinned
”.
Omar Al Shogre owes his salvation only to a corrupt officer.
Bribed by the young man's family, he succeeds in passing him off as dead and exfiltrates him from prison.
According to him, this call from Damascus for a "
return of the refugees
" is a political maneuver.
“
The Syrian regime wishes to become reputable again.
He wants to re-establish his relations with the international community, because he is dying, he is isolated and his economy is doing very badly.
He has nothing to offer these refugees whose return he wants, except starvation, death and destruction.
"
Of his years behind bars, Omar Al Shogre keeps vivid memories and also some photos taken after his release where he appears skeletal.
In prison, he was forced to number the corpses of his comrades who died under torture.
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To read also: Syria: the thorny question of the return of refugees
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Syria: the thorny issue of the return of refugees