Abu Hammam Prison

This prison was located in the Madiya neighborhood of Abu Hamam, which is part of the Hajin district in Deir ez-Zor province. The building is located on the left bank of the Euphrates River in the area inhabited by the Shaitat clan.

The prison was originally a ten-room building. Three of these rooms faced the street and served as commercial shops, while the remaining rooms were designated for accommodation and the storage of goods.

In early 2015, ISIS captured the building and transformed it into a security prison in which it detained individuals for various offenses, including joining anti-ISIS cells, selling cigarettes, possessing secret internet connections, and attempting to escape ISIS areas of control.

The prison included four solitary confinement cells and one group cell which was also used at some points as a torture room. It also contained a room designated for the ISIS judge. The hallway served as a venue for displaying ISIS propaganda videos, while other rooms were utilized as rest areas for ISIS members or for storing weapons. Additionally, ISIS replaced the external storage area with solitary confinement cells and reinforced the external doors with thick iron, while blocking some windows.

In 2015, Abu Muhammad al-Jazrawi was in charge of the prison. He was assisted by interrogators and guards such as Abu Aysha and Abu Fatima. An ISIS judge occasionally visited the prison. In 2017, two Tunisian ISIS commanders, known as Abu al-Farouq and Abu Muhammad, were in charge.

The ISIS Prisons Museum (IPM) based its study of this prison on an audio interview with the building’s owner, as well as two audio interviews with two former detainees who were held there between 2015 and 2017. The former detainees chose not to disclose their images due to concerns about ISIS sleeper cells. The witnesses were shown a 3D video tour of the entire prison, which enabled them to provide detailed descriptions of the rooms’ uses and their experiences.

The IPM team also conducted an architectural analysis of the building, examining the changes and damage inflicted by ISIS when it was converted into a prison. This analysis included a comparative approach with other ISIS prisons in the Shaitat areas.

The property owners eventually managed to reclaim the building in January 2018 after the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) had taken control of Abu Hamam. Upon their return, they found some remnants and belongings left by ISIS such as cooking equipment and writing on the walls, but they did not find any documents.

At the time of writing, the IPM has documented seven prisons and eight mass graves in the town of Abu Hamam.