Interrogated naked for 12 hours: Brazilian remembers Assad’s secret prison in Syria

“Many warned me to be careful with her,” he says. The relationship, combined with frequent travel and contact with people linked to the opposition, became one of the central points of the interrogation.

“When I was arrested, they questioned me saying that she had said that I moved around a lot”, he recalls.

Germano’s biggest fear was revealing sensitive information from his sources, who were truly opposed to the government. However, as a security measure, he kept sensitive contacts on a chip with encrypted information, which was discarded before being caught.

“I knew from the beginning that I wouldn’t die, Brazil’s relationship with Syria is good, but Syrian opponents were treated with a lot of violence”, says Germano.

I once covered the story of a 13-year-old boy on the outskirts of Damascus who urinated on the president’s photo. He was tortured to death, his genital organ cut off and glued to his mouth, the body was handed over to his family, who later gave an interview to state TV saying that their son was deviant and hanging out with bad company, clearly they were forced.
Germano Assad

‘Welcome to Syria, sorry for arresting you’

After the interrogation, Germano was taken to the prison director’s office, who greeted him with a cigarette in his mouth and apologies accompanied by smoke.