Political prisoners forgotten by the world protest on behalf of hundreds of thousands detained or ‘disappeared’

In the shaky mobile phone video, around a dozen men stand in silence, faces grim, placards held above their heads. The corridor’s yellow light reveals exposed wires and damp, peeling paint.

The men are detainees in the central prison in Hama, western Syria: some were arrested during the peaceful Arab Spring protests in 2011 and have been held without trial since.

“We have been imprisoned for many years in the darkness of detention cells, breathing in and breathing out agony,” one reads from a piece of paper explaining their decision to go on hunger strike. “We’re exhausted. We have the right to live and for our story to be taken seriously.”

The powerful message is a rare glimpse into the unseen world of Syria’s hundreds of thousands of political prisoners.

In Hama central prison around 200 men are now on their third week of hunger strike in protest at their continued detention – and a decision to transfer 11 prisoners to Damascus’s infamous Sednaya military prison, described by Amnesty International as a slaughterhouse.

If sent to Sednaya, the 11 are “dead men walking”, said Mustafa, a local activist, who added that relatives have gathered outside Hama police station in solidarity protests.

“Please, all human beings, all Syrians, I am not a terrorist. I never held a weapon. I just participated in a demonstration for freedom,” one hunger-striking detainee said in a WhatsApp voice note. “We spent years in Sednaya and now they want to send us back to execute us. We did no wrong to the Syrian people, from any background or sect. Listen to our voices. Listen just for once.”

After almost eight years of fighting that has ripped the country apart, the international community has for the most part accepted that President Bashar al-Assad is the victor in Syria’s civil war.

However, without accountability or justice for the estimated 80,000 people who have been forcibly disappeared, tortured and murdered in government prisons, any eventual peace agreement in the complex conflict will be no more than a plaster covering a open wound.

“The detention issue in Syria is a very difficult one,” said Sara Kayyali, of Human Rights Watch. “People have now been in prison for years with no sentences, no lawyers, no prospect for release. These detainees in Hama very rightly feel that their fate is being ignored by the world.”

Hama central prison, a civilian facility supposed to be more humane than notorious intelligence detention centres and Sednaya, has been a hotbed of resistance since 2012, when a riot led to prisoners taking guards and administrative staff hostage. Negotiations for hearings and better conditions have failed time and again, leading to fresh riots and intermittent hunger strikes.

The new hunger strike is being held in protest at the decision of a military judge last month to send 11 men back to Sednaya and try another 68, including some minors, in what detainees feared would lead to lengthy sentences and the death penalty. They are calling for a general amnesty.

Since the summer Damascus has issued hundreds of belated death certificates for the disappeared. Many have taken this official acknowledgement as a sign that at this late stage of the war, Assad no longer fears repercussions – either at home or in the international community – from admitting that so many opposition members died in state custody.

Syria’s capital, along with neighbouring Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon, tired of shouldering the burden of large refugee populations are insisting that it is safe for Syrians to return to their homes.

Despite the strident promises of amnesty and reconciliation, however, new evidence is emerging that in areas recently retaken by the government from Sunni rebel forces, dozens of opposition figures as well as soldiers who defected from the Syrian army are being disappeared. Their numbers add to the thousands who are already languishing in Assad’s prisons and unlikely to see a fair trial – which would stoke the anger of Syrians feeling betrayed by Western partners who encouraged them to stand up to the regime.

Inside Hama central prison, inmates are weakening from a diet of water, sometimes taken with salt or sugar. Posts in support have flooded Syrian social media. “The Syrian revolution is strong,” one supporter wrote. “May God protect you.”