The History of Raqqa’s Stadium: From Sports Facility to Security Prison

 

 

 

Beginnings

The construction of Raqqa’s municipal stadium (al-malaab al-baladi) began in 1995. The stadium was built on a piece of land spanning the Firdous and Badou neighborhoods that had been reserved for the purpose. The building was finally completed in 2006. During the years in between, the city of Raqqa expanded so much that the stadium, which had once been on the outskirts, was absorbed into the city center. Over the years, the high concrete wall surrounding the stadium was stained by traffic fumes. Residents therefore referred to the whole structure as “the Black Stadium.”

This name became more poignant when ISIS converted the stadium into a prison, also known as Point 11. The stadium became the biggest and most brutal of all ISIS prisons. But ISIS were not the first to use the premises in this way. Earlier in 2013, before ISIS took over, Islamist militias had established both a prison and a sharia committee and court in the building. ISIS, however, designated it for use as a detention center for what it called “high-security” prisoners.

 

There were around 46 rooms in the prison, including bathrooms, kitchens, group cells, solitary cells, and offices for the sharia judges. It also contained storerooms for prisoners’ personal documents and belongings, as well as rooms used for interrogation, torture, and execution. The “high-security” prisoners held here faced extremely brutal torture, which included being suspended by their wrists or feet from a hoist, the extraction of nails, and the skinning of body parts.

The ISIS Prisons Museum (IPM) began documenting and studying the Stadium Prison just days after ISIS had abandoned it. Over the years, the IPM team has recorded 11 interviews with former detainees. It has also interviewed engineers who worked on the construction of the stadium, and activists who witnessed the establishment of the sharia committee before ISIS. Finally, it has recorded a series of interviews with a former jailer at the prison. These interviews provide a clearer picture of both the prison itself and the changes it underwent before, during, and after ISIS control.

IPM Research Methodology

Even when compared to the many other prisons run by ISIS in Syria and Iraq, The prison in the basement of Raqqa’s municipal stadium was one of the most brutal and secretive. Since it was a prison for “high-security” prisoners, ISIS tightened security and took extra measures to ensure that jailers’ identities remained secret. Prisoners were always blindfolded when they were taken from their cells for interrogation or torture.

The prison was used by two ISIS security branches. One, dedicated to the province of Raqqa, monitored and arrested suspects from the city and nearby areas. The other was dedicated to the province of Sham, or Syria, and it often brought prisoners to the stadium from other areas of Syria that ISIS controlled. The two branches were stationed in the southern and northern sections of the stadium respectively. Together they operated within what was known as Point 11. This intermingling between the two branches has made it challenging for the IPM team to clearly distinguish between their operations, especially since prisoners often did not know which branch or department had arrested them.

The Stadium Prison had a fearsome reputation. ISIS used it as a testing ground for new practices and new methods of torture. It included, for example, special cells such as the ‘doghouse’ and the ‘coffin.’

As dozens, if not hundreds, of those imprisoned here did not survive, it is likely that many of the crimes committed against them will never see the light of day.

Therefore, the IPM team put a lot of effort into studying the Stadium Prison. Since 2017, the team has collected and studied many documents and testimonies related to the prison. The research has focused on two components. The first is to document the history of the stadium from its earliest conception in the 1970s until it fell under the control of militant Islamist factions in April 2013. These militias used the premises for media operations, then as a home for a sharia committee. To understand this phase, the IPM interviewed two engineers who supervised the construction of the stadium, as well as political activists resident in Raqqa in 2013, when the stadium was under the control of the Islamist militias.

The second component focuses on the period of ISIS control. It has involved filming 11 testimonies by men who were detained in the stadium by ISIS on various security charges, and recording two audio interviews with an ISIS jailer who performed administrative tasks there. The first interviews were conducted in 2021, and the second in 2024. The jailer did not want to be identified.

Even more than other prisons studied and documented by the IPM team, the architectural analysis of the Stadium Prison took a significant time to complete. The vast area of the building and the diverse ways in which it was used have made it still more challenging to sort the evidence in order to reach as full an understanding as possible.

Floor plan of the Stadium Prison, also known as Point 11. IPM

 

The Stadium as a Sports Facility

In the 1970s, the Syrian regime allocated a piece of land spanning the Firdous and Badou neighborhoods for the construction of a sports facility. Sporting and other youth-oriented events had been held at the site since the 1960s, and would continue to be held there, but work on the stadium did not actually start until 1995. In the intervening years, the high concrete wall surrounding the area was stained by pollution. This won the stadium, when it was finally constructed, the unofficial name “the Black Stadium.”

Engineer Muhammad al-Hariri, who later helped to supervise the construction of the stadium, told the IPM that residents of Raqqa still remember the sporting events held at this location, despite the lack of facilities, in the 1970s. Civil engineer and political activist Hadib Shehadah, who supervised the construction of the metal canopy over the stands, provided detailed information about the layout and design of the stadium. In 2014, he was detained there.

The building plan is divided into two main parts: the stands and the metal canopy covering them. The construction of the metal canopy started in 1996. According to Hadib Shehadah, it was the second such canopy in Syria – the first being the roof of the Latakia Stadium, which hosted the Mediterranean Games in 1987.

Under the stands were halls used for gymnastics, karate, judo, and other sports, a large wedding hall, and a variety of other basement rooms.

The stadium hosted sporting events until 2011, when public gatherings were officially suspended following the breakout of protests against the Assad regime.

Satellite image of Raqqa stadium in 2010

 

Revolutionary Change

Early in 2011, in the context of the Arab Spring, protests broke out across Syria calling for the fall of the Assad regime.

Raqqa remained relatively calm through the first year of the revolution, and even became a safe haven for Syrians displaced by violence from Homs and other cities. On March 17, 2012, however, funerals of people killed by the regime turned into a huge protest. Similar unarmed protests continued for the rest of the year.

In early March 2013, the Assad regime lost Raqqa to a coalition of Islamist militias who had approached the city from outside. This made Raqqa the first provincial capital to slip regime control. Civil and democratic revolutionaries hoped for a liberation on their terms. An activist interviewed by the IPM (whose name will not be shared for security reasons) remembered working with other activists and various opposition groups to set up a media center in the stadium. That project lasted barely two weeks before the Islamist militias decided to make the stadium the headquarters of their sharia committee, a judicial authority established in late March 2013. The most powerful of the militias were Ahrar al-Sham and Jabhat al-Nusra.

From Opposition Factions to ISIS Rule

At the time, the differences between Jabhat al-Nusra and ISIS were not clear to residents, who treated their members as part of a single group. The public split into separate militias happened several months later^[1]. In the meantime, the intermingling of the two groups facilitated the later defection of Jabhat al-Nusra officers to ISIS. One such example is Abu Ali al-Shari, who will be mentioned later.

According to the activist’s testimony, the sharia committee that made the stadium its headquarters was headed by Yasir Aouf, an Islamist dentist who had been a former prisoner in the Syrian regime’s Saydnaya Prison. He was chosen as a figure of unity who was not partial to any one group. However, other local activists indicated that Aouf was backed by Jabhat al-Nusra. To placate the local tribes, committee members appointed Ismail al-Lajji as the committee’s vice president. Al-Lajji was both a local and a member of the Almuntasir Billah faction, which was important in the city at the time.

Al-Lajji was backed by Ahrar al-Sham to balance Aouf, who was backed by Jabhat al-Nusra. This indicates that Jabhat al-Nusra and Ahrar al-Sham were effectively in control, while the other factions played a minor role.

In an attempt to address the absence of judicial authority after the Assad regime’s withdrawal, the sharia committee was tasked with adjudicating personal, civil, commercial, and other disputes. Some rooms in the stadium were used as makeshift, temporary holding cells for those detained by the committee. Testimonies from local activists indicate that within a short period the sharia committee started introducing and enforcing hardline laws.

The arrest of Rimal Noufal is an example of the committee’s oppressive practices. Rimal was arrested and flogged because she and other activists had sold colored cups to raise money for people in need during Ramadan in 2013, and because she had protested the beating and arrest of her colleague who was filming the initiative.

In a video interview with the IPM, Rimal says that after the arrest of her colleague she went to enquire about him at the headquarters of the sharia committee in the stadium. She was then herself arrested because, according  to the judges and officials of the committee, “she was loud and her clothes were not decent.”

Around the same time, members of the committee arrested another activist who had shared footage on his Facebook account showing abuses committed by the armed factions in the city. The committee considered his actions to be “slander” and detained him in the stadium for hours after confiscating his laptop and deleting his critical posts. According to the activist, he was only released because members of the committee feared his detention would raise tensions with members of his clan.

In the summer of 2013, the fragile temporary coalition between the factions unwound. ISIS had bolstered its troops in Raqqa and its surrounding countryside after being expelled from large parts of Aleppo and Idlib provinces by opposition forces there. In late 2013 and early 2014, ISIS expelled the other militias from Raqqa and took full control of the city. Afterwards, it expelled the remaining Assad regime troops from their bases at Tabqa Military Airport, Division 17, and Brigade 93.

Raqqa was later declared the capital of the ISIS “caliphate^[2].” After that, the organization rounded up activists, opposition members, journalists, and anyone suspected of disloyalty, many of whom were killed.

At that time, many schools, houses, and governmental and commercial buildings were confiscated by ISIS and converted into prisons. In this context, the municipal stadium, or ‘Black Stadium,’ became an ISIS prison.

Two Security Branches in One Prison

Information provided by the former ISIS jailer at the Point 11 Prison (whose name is not given for security reasons^[3]) led us to believe that the prison was divided between two ISIS security branches. The security branch of Raqqa province ran a prison in the southern section of the stadium, while the security branch of Sham province ran another in the northern section. The latter handled security cases from other areas of Syria, including Aleppo and its surrounding countryside, Idlib, Deir ez-Zor, and Hasakah. However, the testimonies of some Raqqa residents who were detained in the stadium indicate that they too were held in the northern section, which was allocated to Sham province’s security branch. This makes it difficult to identify the boundaries of the two security branches operating the prison and their respective jurisdictions.

Information collated from witness testimonies indicates that the Point 11 Prison was first established in 2013 at the compound in Raqqa that housed the military court and the civil registry. Point 11 operated at that location for four months before the building was destroyed by air strikes. After that, ISIS moved Point 11 to the municipal stadium, which was being fortified for use as a security prison.

Administrative Hierarchy

The Raqqa province branch was based in the southern section of the prison. At the lowest level of its administrative hierarchy were the jailers. Most of these were teenagers and young men from Raqqa, Idlib, and Aleppo provinces, but there were some foreign ISIS members too. The branch also employed administrative and financial officers, who were responsible for procuring food, water, and the electricity needed to operate the surveillance cameras.

Above them were security officers whose main work lay beyond the prison. They were tasked with monitoring and gathering information, and providing reports to their superiors. Most of them were locals who knew the areas in which they operated.

At the top of the hierarchy were the senior interrogators and judges. Most were natives of Raqqa, possibly because both Abu Luqman, the highest ISIS security officer in Syria, and the judge Abu Ali al-Shari, known as ‘the butcher,’ were from Raqqa province. This may indicate that personal connections and nepotism played a role in the appointment of interrogators. Abu Luqman and Abu Ali al-Shari’s relationship was of long duration. They had been arrested and imprisoned in Saydnaya together^[4].

Organizational Hierarchy of Point 11

 

This hierarchical structure determined how the prison operated. After a prisoner was brought in by the guards, he handed over his belongings for safekeeping, underwent interrogation by a number of officers, then was finally sentenced by the judges. The former jailer mentioned the noms de guerre of some specific interrogators: Abu Omar al-Shishani, Abu Ahmad al-Amni, Abu Ali Sabahiyah, and Abu Muhammad. He says that the interrogations of women were handled by foreign female Jihadists, who flogged their detainees to extract confessions.

According to this testimony, ISIS security officers changed their noms de guerre periodically as a security measure. They also attributed themselves to countries or places they were not from. For example, Abu Omar al-Shishani (Abu Omar the Chechen) was from Raqqa, not Chechnya, and Abu Ibrahim al-Manbiji was also from Raqqa, not Manbij, as his nom de guerre indicates.

The testimonies of Hadib Shehadah and Qutaibah al-Fasih, who was detained in the Stadium Prison in 2016 on the charge of collaboration with the Coalition, indicate that there were a number of judges in the southern section of the prison. The judges included Abu Ali al-Shari, mentioned above, who hails from the town of Karama and whose real name is Fawwaz al-Muhammad al-Hassan al-Kurdi^[5]. By late 2014, a number of Egyptian judges were also present. They became relatively close to the prisoners and issued pardons for some of them. Two officials, Abu Ibrahim al-Manbiji and Abu Muhammad al-Idlibi, were in charge of keeping the prison records.

Several full-time interrogators worked at the prison. Abu Luqman^[6] – whose real name is Ali Mousa al-Shawwakh – was the head of ISIS intelligence in Syria. He carried out regular fortnightly inspection visits of the prison in late 2014 and early 2015. The visits aimed to check the situation of prisoners, to review their cases, and to provide instructions on questioning and interrogation^[7].

The engineer and political activist Hadib Shahada, who was detained in the Stadium Prison in 2014, describes Abu Luqman as: “Very smart with leadership skills. He has a swallow’s memory [an excellent memory] that enables him to remember some prisoners and their cases and to recognize them by their voices. He visited between two and four a.m. every two weeks, for his personal security.”

It is not clear whether Abu Luqman continued his inspections in the same manner. He supervised many prisons within the large area that ISIS ruled in Syria.

 

Position	Name or Nom de Guerre
Head of ISIS intelligence	Ali Mousa al-Shawwakh (Abu Luqman)
Security officer of the Raqqa province branch	Abu Sariyah
Security officer of the Sham province branch	Abu Basir al-Tunisi
Emir of Point 11	Abu Ali al-Anbari
Judge	Fawwaz al-Muhammad al-Hassan al-Kurdi (Abu Ali al-Shari)
Officers in charge of safekeeping and records	Abu Ibrahim al-Manbiji and Abu Muhammad al-Idlibi
Jailers	Abu Muhammad and al-Zarqawi

Table of noms de guerre of people who were in charge of Point 11

 

The available information concerning the northern section of the Stadium Prison, which was allocated to the Sham province, is insufficient. However, the existence of a safekeeping room, interrogation rooms, and judges’ rooms indicates that it may have been similar to the southern section in terms of hierarchical structure and administration.

In his testimony, the former ISIS jailer at Point 11 says that the Sham province prison was mostly run by foreign ISIS members, because they were more trusted by the leadership.

Visitors taking the 3D tour of the prison will notice a difference in the way the two sections were partitioned. Room names in the northern section were written in a clear script above the doors. Windows, bars, and doors in the southern sections were painted in green, to make them look the same in both sections.

Prison Floor Plan

When we talk about the Stadium Prison, we are specifically referring to the basement of the municipal stadium structure. ISIS used the entire building, but the group cells and solitary cells studied by the IPM team were in the basement.

We are also describing the prison cells in general, without distinguishing between the Sham province section and the Raqqa province section. It seems that the distinction was made only at the administrative level. In practice, prisoners were continuously moved between the different rooms and areas of the prison.

The central corridor was the Point 11 Prison’s main artery. The 125-meter passageway could be accessed from three staircases. The corridor connected 46 halls of different sizes, including kitchens and bathrooms.

Most of the halls on the right side of the corridor were used as group cells or partitioned into blocks of solitary cells. The halls on the left side were used as administration rooms, interrogation offices, and break rooms for ISIS members. A few were also used as group cells.

2D floor plan of the Stadium Prison (Point 11) 

 

The prison contained two torture rooms, an execution room, and 16 administrative rooms that included offices for interrogators, judges, the prosecutor, and the emir, in addition to rooms for storage, safekeeping, and breaks. There were 13 group cells of different sizes distributed throughout the prison. They included a room referred to as ‘the brothers’ prison’. It is thought that this cell was designated for ISIS members accused of treason or other offenses. Testimonies indicate that ISIS members were detained in other group cells as well.

Eight blocks of solitary cells formed an important part of the prison. They varied in size, type, and in the materials used in their construction. Each block contained 10 to 15 solitary cells used for detention and torture^[8].

ISIS located its ‘doghouse’ cell in the northern section. This was so small that a prisoner could fit inside only while in the fetal position. The prisoner could not move, and was only allowed to leave the cell once or twice a day to eat and use the toilet. The prisoner’s body became rigid from staying in the same position for so long. Another example was the ‘coffin,’ a narrow concrete cell in which a prisoner had to remain on his feet without moving while his hands were tied outside the cell through a small window in the door.

The block of solitary cells in the southern section was built in what had once been a wedding hall. It contained 15 cells, each holding three prisoners in unbearably cramped conditions. This part of the prison was more badly damaged than any other when it was bombed in 2014 by the Global Coalition.

Room Type	Quantity
Administrative room	16
Group cell	13
Block of solitary cells	8
Torture and execution room	3
Detached bathroom[9]	2
Kitchen	2
Entrance	3

The Stadium Prison’s rooms and halls

 

A survey of the building makes clear that ISIS worked hard to convert the stadium into a prison. The internal design of the structure was greatly modified. New walls were installed, while others were removed. Windows were fortified with wire and iron bars. The walls of some group cells were also fortified with iron bars. According to the jailer’s testimony, these extra measures were taken after two prisoners managed to escape through ventilation ducts. Blocking the ducts reduced the flow of air to the cells. Later, ventilators were installed to remedy the situation.

ISIS used iron railings as ceilings in the solitary cells. Most of these railings were taken from parks and confiscated government buildings. According to former prisoner Qutaibah al-Fasih, ISIS also installed metal cages in the corridors to prevent prisoners from escaping. However, some were still able to escape each time the building was bombed.

After repeated air strikes, ISIS bolstered the prison with sandbags. This was documented by the IPM’s field team when it surveyed the prison. The fortifications were visible in spaces surrounding the stadium and even inside some rooms that had been hit by bombs. Traces of these fortifications can be seen in the 3D tour of the prison.

Interrogation, Torture, and Execution

Point 11 was perhaps the most brutal of all ISIS prisons. The ‘high-security’ prisoners held here were subjected to extremely cruel forms of torture during interrogations, and often to execution.

Various interrogation offices within the prison were tasked with extracting information that would help ISIS consolidate its gains in Raqqa and elsewhere. Information collated from witness testimonies shows that some of these offices were tasked with specific issues. One, for instance, dealt with Kurdish prisoners and with suspected collaborators with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Another focused on those suspected of affiliation with the Free Syrian Army (FSA), while others dealt with cases of communication with the Global Coalition or other foreign entities. Similarly, some interrogation rooms were dedicated to investigating journalists and political activists, while others handled the cases of ISIS members accused of treason or of otherwise disobeying orders.

ISIS was careful to keep prisoners blindfolded to prevent them from seeing their interrogators or recognizing the locations of the interrogation rooms within the prison. Former prisoner Hudhaifa al-Ibrahim, who was detained at Point 11 in 2014, mentioned that jailers used two blindfolds to ensure that he could not see. Nevertheless, some former prisoners said they had been able to catch glimpses of tables, chairs, and torture tools in the interrogation rooms.

Typically, an interrogation session lasted for about one and a half hours, during which interrogators asked many questions. It is likely that those sessions were not filmed. Instead, written records were kept on paper.

Psychological torture included humiliation, threats of execution, or threats to kill family members in front of prisoners. The orange execution suit was itself a torture tool. Jailers would throw the uniform into a cell, leaving prisoners in torment, wondering which of them would be killed.

Prisoners were also offered deals if they worked as informants or joined up to fight for ISIS. Physical torture included beating, electric shocks, and flogging with the infamous green hose known as ‘Lakhdar Brahimi^[10].’ Nor was torture limited to the specific torture or interrogation rooms. Some were hanged by their wrists in their solitary cells for days at a time. Others were hanged by their limbs on a hoist^[11] attached to a high ceiling. Former prisoner Khalil Ahmad al-Nasir, who was detained in Point 11 for four and a half months in 2015 on the charge of collaboration with the Global Coalition, was hanged by his limbs for seven days in the high-ceilinged room depicted below. Scars left by the flogging he suffered in this room are still visible on his back.

Other tortures included beating with sticks and metal chains. ISIS jailers also tormented prisoners by forcing them to stay on their feet in the prison corridor for days on end. The prisoners were only allowed to move to perform prayers and to use the bathroom.

Torture with the car lifting crane (balingo) 

 

Many prisoners never returned to their cells – let alone their homes – after interrogation. Instead, they were taken to an execution room in the southern section. Both Khalil Ahmad al-Nasir and the former ISIS jailer told the IPM that prisoners were executed in this room. Before ISIS, it had been used as a boxing hall.

The IPM team found little information concerning the charges against those who were executed here. In order to intimidate him, ISIS forced Khalil to witness some executions, but he does not know anything about those who were executed. On the other hand, the former jailer reports that the only people executed inside the prison were ISIS members accused of treason, whereas activists and other types of prisoners were executed outside the prison, in public. He also reported that at one point Abu Ali al-Anbari^[12], a member of the ISIS advisory council, issued an order that banned detaining prisoners for more than four months, instructing that they should be either killed or released after that limit.

Prison Meals

According to witness testimonies, there were two kitchens in the prison, both equipped with cooking utensils. Administrative staff were in charge of procuring meat, vegetables, and staples from the local markets. Breakfasts consisted of jams and halva or thyme with oil. Lunch was normally rice with broth or yogurt. Some meals contained meat, as the prison’s administrative staff sometimes took their meals from the food prepared in the prison.

Food was put in a large pot and taken to the group cells. Prisoners were responsible for distributing it among themselves. Prisoners in the solitary cells received their meals on disposable plates without spoons, and their meals were much smaller, about a quarter of the amount allocated to a prisoner in a group cell. The practice of serving smaller meals to prisoners in the solitary cells was confirmed by the testimony of Hudhaifa al-Ibrahim, who was detained in the prison for unknown reasons in 2014.

According to witness testimonies, the meals sometimes contained chicken. Abdul Qadir al-Nafi, who was detained in the Stadium Prison in 2016 because he had a private internet connection at home, says that prisoners were served two meals a day, one in the morning and one in the evening. He adds that food was generally available, and that prisoners could request meals if they had missed them for any reason. On the other hand, Ali Muhammad al-Hamad, who was detained in 2015 in a solitary cell next to a group cell, says that he received three meals a day, and that they normally consisted of rice and bulgur wheat.

There are similar discrepancies concerning food in the testimonies of former prisoners in other ISIS prisons studied by the IPM team. This can be attributed to a number of factors, chief among them being the time of arrest. During the earlier stages of ISIS rule, the organization had ample resources and allocated a lot of food to prisons. However, during the later stages, facing a tight siege and grappling with dwindling resources, ISIS significantly decreased the food allocated to prisons.

Daily Routine and Prisoners’ Relationships with Jailers

Detention conditions in the Stadium Prison varied considerably depending on a number of factors, including the charges against the prisoner and the place of detention within the prison. In general, conditions in the group cells were better than in the solitary cells. Prisoners could communicate and provide each other with some emotional support despite their fears of spies planted by ISIS.

Witness testimonies indicate that the group cells were overcrowded. Muhammad al-Nahar, detained in Point 11 in 2015 on charges of smuggling and joining FSA camps in Turkey, says he was detained in a cell with 70 other men. He explains that the cell included a small kitchen where prisoners could prepare tea. He adds that prisoners were responsible for cleaning the cell and rarely received any medical care.

As in other ISIS prisons in Syria and Iraq, performing prayers and reading religious books were the main activities in a prisoner’s daily routine. The routine was sometimes disrupted by interventions from the jailers. Muhammad Khaled Ismail, who was detained in 2015, mentions that a high-ranking officer called Abu Basir al-Tunisi used to have fun torturing prisoners inside the group cells. For example, he forced three prisoners to sit on each others’ shoulders in order to reach the ceiling, then he switched on the ceiling fan so that the uppermost prisoner was hit. Sometimes he blindfolded the prisoners and divided them into two groups, then forced them to run inside the cell so that they collided with each other or with the walls.

Prisoners who were ISIS members received different treatment. Two former prisoners said that detained ISIS members were visited by their wives on specific weekdays and were left alone with them in rooms or halls within the prison. They were also allowed to make requests, and to order food from outside the prison.

A reconstruction of life in the Point 11 Prison. IPM

 

Writing on the Walls

The IPM team documented and analyzed a large amount of writing left on the walls of group cells, solitary cells, and bathrooms in the prison. This material may hold important clues as to the fates of the many people disappeared by ISIS.

The IPM documented approximately 230 names written on the walls of this prison. Some are full names, while others are just first names. Noms de guerre that probably belonged to detained ISIS members were also on the walls. These include Abu al-Zubair al-Idlibi (repeated several times), Abu Samir al-Daghistani, Abu Zain al-Uzbaki, and Abu Said al-Britani.

Names that are believed to belong to prisoners have been added to a database in the IPM’s Jawab Platform, an initiative dedicated to ascertaining the fate of those who went missing during ISIS rule.

In addition to names, the IPM documented words and phrases written in various languages, the most common of which are Arabic, English, Russian, and Kurdish.

Writing on a group cell wall. The top line reads: “There is no God but

You, glory be to You. I have certainly done wrong” (from the Quran).

 

The writing on the walls consisted mostly of quotes from the Quran or other religious phrases. Prisoners often wrote specific verses or supplications that symbolized or reflected their fears, pain, or pleas for relief from God.

For example, the supplication “There is no God but You, glory be to You. I have certainly done wrong” (from the Quran) was written in one instance in a group cell in the southern section of the prison, and in another in the northern section. The quote is from verse 87 of the Anbiya chapter of the Quran, which tells the story of the Prophet Younus (Jonah) who was swallowed by a whale. Younus was unable to escape his predicament until he pleaded to God using the supplication in the quote.

Another example is the supplication, “Suffering has truly afflicted me, but you are the Most Merciful of the merciful,” which was written on a wall in a group cell. It is another quote from the Anbiya chapter of the Quran, in which the Prophet Ayyoub (Job) asks God for relief from adversity and recovery from illness. In Islamic as in Christian cultures, the Prophet Ayyoub (Job) is a symbol of patience.

Another quote written on a number of walls was “He [Muhammad] said to his companion, ‘do not grieve, God is certainly with us.’” The quote, from verse 40 of the Tawbah chapter of the Quran, refers to when Prophet Muhammad and his companion Abu Bakr hid in Hiraa Cave to evade the polytheists pursuing them.

The religious writing was not limited to Quranic verses. There were also ISIS slogans and texts that seemed to come from the sharia courses that some detainees were forced to attend. The following is an example: “Types of religious observances in Islam: Love, fear, supplication, longing, reverence, humility, trust [in Allah], devotion…” It seems that whoever wrote this text was trying to memorize it.

The lyrics of the opening song of the famous 1996 Syrian drama series Brothers of the Soil made another text: “Even if injustice spreads wide and far, darkness will inevitably dissipate. No matter how war bleeds our hearts, peace will inevitably prevail.”

In addition to the writing, there were drawings and games that were presumably invented by the prisoners to pass the time. There were also tally marks counting the days of detention. One solitary cell contained numbers next to descriptions in English of physical exercises for the legs and back. It seems they were written by a prisoner trying to maintain his physical health.

The End of the Prison

According to the jailer’s testimony, the organization chose to convert the stadium into a prison because it was covered by a canopy, fortified, and fit to withstand bombardment and potential battle. Indeed, the prison remained largely intact despite dozens of airstrikes against it, first by the Assad regime, then, after September 2014, by the Global Coalition.

In his testimony, engineer Hadib Shahada mentions that the prison was bombed three times during his 50 days of detention, starting in September 2014. He says that the first Coalition airstrike, which came in mid-September, caused violent tremors that felt like an earthquake, accompanied by very loud explosions that were different from those made by the MiG and Sukhoi fighter jets deployed by the Assad regime. Former prisoner Muhammad al-Hamad, detained in the Stadium Prison in 2015, describes witnessing an airstrike on the prison that injured a woman who was detained in a cage. He adds that he and a friend carried the wounded woman in a blanket.

According to the former jailer, an airstrike in May 2016 contributed to the decision to transfer all prisoners out of the prison and turn it into a military base. The planes had targeted one area of the prison and killed around 13 people. After that, due to the heavy bombing, ISIS members were ordered to move prisoners on foot to a house in the Firdous neighborhood. When the last batch of prisoners was being moved out, four of them managed to escape. ISIS members opened fire and killed two on the spot, while the other two were able to run away.

The information provided by the jailer was corroborated by the testimonies of former prisoners Abdul Qadir al-Nafi and Qutaibah al-Fasih. Abdul Qadir says that the strike hit at around nine a.m., destroying most of the solitary cells section. He and other prisoners were rescued from under the rubble, then taken through the Bajaa Park near the stadium to the Maraya (Mirrors) Prison.

After that, prisoners were transferred to the Children’s Hospital Prison, the last remaining ISIS security prison in Raqqa.

Starting in early 2017, military operations against ISIS escalated, eventually leading to its expulsion from Raqqa. In October 2017, Coalition-led forces declared control of the municipal stadium and Naim Square, the last ISIS-held pockets in the city.

The 3D tour of the Stadium Prison shows the destruction caused by the battles. It also shows tunnels and openings in the walls that were probably used to facilitate the movement of ISIS fighters in battle, or to ensure their safe escape.

Later in 2017, the building was de-mined and the IPM team was able to access the premises and collect some of the documents that had been left behind. In 2018, restoration works started to return the building to its status as a major sporting facility in Raqqa.

1. The situation regarding ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra was not clear to many activists until 9 April 2013, when an audio recording surfaced in which Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared the merger of the Islamic State in Iraq with Jabhat al-Nusra. The next day, April 10, 2013, Jabhat al-Nusra published a recording denying the merger and reiterating their allegiance to al-Qaida and its leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. After this, it became clear that the militias were two separate Jihadi factions. It is worth noting that, before returning to Syria following the popular uprising in 2011, the leader of Jabhat al-Nusra, Abu Muhammad al-Joulani, had been a member of the Islamic State in Iraq. ↑
2. On June 29, 2014, ISIS declared the establishment of the Islamic State with Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as the caliph and Raqqa as the capital. ↑
3. The IPM team recorded two audio interviews with an ISIS jailer who performed administrative tasks, the first in 2021, then the second in 2024. The team interviewed this man twice in order to identify any discrepancies in the information he provided. The former jailer asked to remain anonymous. ↑
4. Abu Luqman and Abu Ali were imprisoned in the Assad regime’s Saydnaya Military Prison for founding a Jihadi cell in Tabqa, near Raqqa. It is possible this case is related to the imprisonment of the dentist Yasir Aouf who served as head of the sharia committee in Raqqa before ISIS. The three men were imprisoned in Saydnaya Prison at the same time. ↑
5. Fawwaz al-Muhammad al-Hassan al-Kurdi, who was known as Abu Ali al-Shari, was a former prisoner in the Saydnaya Military Prison. He was released after the breakout of anti-Assad protests. He joined Jabhat al-Nusra and worked as a judge in the town of Mansoura. He later joined ISIS. He was killed by a Coalition airstrike in April 2016. ↑
6. Ali Mousa al-Shawwakh (Abu Luqman) was the head of ISIS intelligence in Syria. He had previously held several positions within ISIS, including governor of Raqqa and governor of Aleppo. He was imprisoned in the Saydnaya Military Prison for activities in a Salafi-Jihadi cell in the town of Tabqa, near Raqqa. He was released by presidential pardon in 2012. ↑
7. Abu Luqman and his prison inspections were mentioned in a number of testimonies given to the IPM.See interviews with Karam al-Masri and Yousuf Sheikh Weis who met Abu Luqman during their detention in ISIS prisons in Aleppo province. ↑
8. A block refers to a space that was partitioned into small solitary cells. Some were used for detaining up to three people at the same time. Others were so small only one person could be put in them. ↑
9. Detached bathrooms refer to ones that were part of the original building of the stadium. ISIS installed additional bathrooms within the solitary and group cells. ↑
10. A green water hose. The name was first used in the Assad regime’s security branches. When Lakhdar Brahimi was the United Nations special envoy to Syria, prisoners in the Assad regime’s security prisons were beaten with green water hoses and mocked for hoping that the UN special envoy – whose name Lakhdar means ‘green’ – would help to release them. ↑
11. A car lifting crane with a chain and hook. It was used to hang prisoners by their limbs. Some prisons had manual hoists while other prisons had electric ones. ↑
12. Member of the ISIS Shura Council. His real name is Abdul Rahman bin Muhammad bin Mustafa bin Abdul Qader bin Wahb bin Hassan bin Abdul Rahman bin Hussein bin Sayyed Saoum al-Qadouli. ↑