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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Ruth Michaelson, and Obaida Hamad in Homs

‘This place instilled constant fear in us’: the man who lived next door to the brutal Homs security unit for 50 years

Taha Tadmori looks onto the the former political security directorate of Homs from his balcony.
Taha Tadmori looks onto the the former political security directorate of Homs from his balcony. Photograph: David Lombeida/The Observer

The three floors and subterranean prison of the Homs security directorate have loomed over 65-year-old Taha Tadmori’s daily life since he was a teenager. His family often shut their window blinds and doors in an attempt to block out the constant sound of screams and cries of pain from the facility’s basement prison, loud enough to reach their third-floor apartment overlooking it.

The moustachioed man with a gentle smile was 15 when he watched the construction of the neighbouring building that would later terrorise him and other people in Homs.

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