Day 36 is seared into Yazan Awad’s memory. Locked away inside the prison at the al-Mezzeh military airport in the Syrian capital of Damascus, Awad hung naked and blindfolded. Prison guards that day had suspended him from the ceiling by his wrists, a torture technique he had yet to experience.
As the guards raped an unidentified woman they claimed was his mother, Awaz was made to listen to her screams. Later, when he refused to give up information, he says they sexually assaulted him using a rifle.