Photos displayed in Damascus show artifacts from Syria’s Assad-era prisons

DAMASCUS (AP) — At the Damascus International Fair, families posed for selfies, children climbed into an aircraft cockpit and visitors browsed displays of artwork, handicrafts and police uniforms. But inside the Interior Ministry pavilion, the mood was markedly different.

A section titled “When the Walls Speak” confronts visitors with Syria’s prison system during the rule of former President Bashar Assad. The exhibit includes a reconstruction of a cell using original items from Military Security Branch 248, along with cell doors, detainees’ clothing, prosthetic limbs, handcuffs and other restraints collected from prisons and security branches. A chair is presented as having been used for torture, while photographs show prison interiors and an aerial view of Saydnaya.

Some visitors, including relatives of detainees, became emotional and wept as they moved through the display.

The prison exhibit forms part of the 63rd Damascus International Fair, held at the fairgrounds on the outskirts of the Syrian capital.

This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.