Semira Salih Ugla, 60, demands that Bashar Assad, his family face ‘justice' in Sednaya Prison
A 60-year-old Syrian mother, who lost four of her sons to the brutality committed by the ousted Bashar Assad regime, called for the former head of the regime and his family to be punished in the infamous Sednaya Prison.
Semira Salih Ugla, originally from Damascus, recounted that her children – Hani, Eyhem, and Betul Hishman – were detained in Sednaya Prison in 2012 for participating in anti-regime protests.
Her grief was compounded when she learned of Hani's death while her other sons, Ahmed, Mohammed, and Eymen, were shot dead in the street before her eyes.
She has not yet heard about the fate of Eyhem and Betul since their imprisonment.
After the tragic loss of her sons, she fled Syria with her two daughters, seeking refuge in Türkiye.
For the past 12 years, she has been living in Türkiye's southeastern Sanliurfa province.
Despite her struggles, Ugla expressed a sense of relief with the fall of Syria's decades-long Baath regime, although the pain of her loss lingers.
Speaking to Anadolu, she said: “The reports we've heard about the methods of torture there are horrific—acid tanks, press machines, and unimaginable cruelty.”
“I had hoped to reunite with my son Hani, even if he had lost his memory,” she said, adding: “But instead, I've only received confirmation of one death, while the fates of my other two children remain unknown.”
- Witness to horror
Recalling the traumatic day when she lost three of her sons, Ugla said: “Soldiers came to our house and dragged my three sons, including one who was disabled, outside.
“They lined them up in the street with six others and shot them in front of us,” she recalled.
“When we tried to approach, they kicked us back with their boots. They slaughtered my children right before my eyes,” she said.
Following these events, she was interrogated by regime police, which ultimately forced her to flee Syria for her and her daughters' safety.
Ugla, like many Syrian mothers who lost loved ones to the regime's brutality, demands justice.
She expressed frustration that Assad has taken refuge in Russia.
“We do not accept Assad escaping,” she said. “We want to see him and his family imprisoned in Sednaya (prison). We don't even accept his execution; we want him to face the same suffering our children endured.”
Despite her pain, Ugla participated in celebrations at Sanliurfa's Rabia Square when the Assad government fell.
“It felt like the world became ours,” she said. “Assad's cruelty is indescribable, and everyone knows the extent of his tyranny.”
“We rejoiced together, and now we pray for a day when we can return to our homeland with justice served,” she added.
Assad, Syria's leader for nearly 25 years, fled to Russia after anti-regime groups took control of Damascus on Dec. 8, ending the Baath Party's regime, which had been in power since 1963.
The takeover came after Hayat Tahrir al-Sham fighters captured key cities in a lightning offensive that lasted less than two weeks.
*Writing by Merve Berker
