Written by Maxim El-Haj, and translated by Jihad El-Haj
People from Hama governorate and field activists tell stories and testimonies confirming that at the beginning of 2012, Hama military airport was one of the largest branches of Syrian intelligence in Hama governorate, and it contained a large Air Intelligence Center, in addition to a large number of security militias affiliated with other intelligence branches, and that it was witnessing the most severe types of torture against detainees from Hama governorate
The same testimonies confirmed that the detainees were imprisoned inside the hangars ” huge iron buildings inside the courtyard of Hama military airport ” during which arbitrary detention is carried out without taking into account the minimum legal rights against the detainees
In a report published by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights in 2012, “the Hama military airport has turned into a prison and detention facility for the Air Force Intelligence Service, one of the harshest and most brutal security branches and mistreating detainees,” adding that thousands of people from Hama governorate, old and young, are detained there and subjected to the most severe types of torture and murder
As for what the airport is today, security sources at Hama military airport, who refused to give their identity for security reasons, said that the airport today is no longer a center for the detention of civilians, after converting it to separate military sectors, and the return of the air intelligence building in Hama to what it was, just one residential building inside the airport with no more than thirty elements with the presence of a head of the center and only five officers
The source added that after undermining the powers of the Air Force Intelligence Branch, the airport returned to its military work, with the removal of all security points that belonged to intelligence groups of various names, and the airport became limited to storing ammunition for Hama governorate, and a Russian-Syrian Transportation Center for Russian elements to and from Hmeimim airport in Latakia, in addition to being the main center of shelling of the north of Syria by Syrian government forces on the areas controlled by the Syrian opposition in Idlib and the countryside of Aleppo
The same source confirmed in his private conversation to” Hama today ” that the detainees for the Air Force intelligence in Hama are detained inside the Air Force intelligence building for several days, then they are deported through military police patrols in Hama to the main Air Force intelligence branch of the central region, located in Homs, and then transferred to Damascus or kept inside the branch
Also, Hama military airport no longer contains any security detainees, or any security prisoners for more than two years until today, according to the source
