The ISIS Prisons Museum has recorded hundreds of video and audio interviews with former detainees, families of the missing, and survivors of abduction and enslavement in Syria and Iraq.

The testimonies form the cornerstone of our understanding of the world of ISIS prisons. Along with other forms of evidence, they help build a clear picture of the methods ISIS employed to intimidate civilians, and to arrest, interrogate, torture and execute detainees both inside and outside the prisons.

In particular, the IPM has made use of these testimonies to build detailed 3D virtual reconstructions of dozens of prisons and other sites where ISIS committed crimes. The witness testimonies have also been an essential tool to inform the production of in-depth investigations into the massacres and other violations perpetrated by ISIS.

In most cases, interviews were conducted in the former prisons in which the witnesses were once detained. When that was not possible, they were recorded in studios. The interviewers upheld strict ethical and legal standards while conducting the interviews.

The interviews published here were recorded at different times, from 2017 onwards, with the written consent of the witnesses. The interviews have been subject to only minimal editing. This ensure that the testimonies are presented without filtering or cutting, to retain meaning.