Ex-pilot freed after 43 years says Assad's fall meant more than release

Ragheed Ahmad al-Tatari, a 72-year-old former Syrian pilot, spent 43 years jailed under the Assad regime after his 1981 arrest for refusing military orders and alleged incitement. He recounted systematic mistreatment across multiple facilities — including Mezzeh, Tadmor (where he served 15 years and endured long solitary confinement), Sednaya, Adra, Suwayda and Tartous — saying trials were run by military officers rather than independent judges, torture was routine, and detention often resembled lawless camps rather than prisons. Tatari described seeing his family only once in 1997 after his relatives paid for the visit and said Sednaya grew far harsher after the 2011 uprising, with documented mass killings and secret executions taking place in the years that followed.

Tatari told Anadolu he regarded the 2011 uprising as initially peaceful and that the regime's use of excessive force pushed people to arm themselves. He said the fall of Bashar al-Assad on December 8, 2024 and the public celebrations he witnessed leaving Tartous gave him greater joy than his own release, and noted the formation of a transitional administration led by President Ahmad al-Sharaa in January 2025. as reported by Anadolu Agency