Ghazi, 22, from Daraa, began his detention in a pile of bodies, covered in water, with a live electric cable thrown on top. He regularly endured electrocutions in three-minute intervals while a captive of what he says was a regime-affiliated militia. Syrians call them ‘Shabiha.’ (photographed 2012)

They fried us like falafel. We would jump in the air, while others simply passed out. They wanted information about the Free Syrian Army. Every time I answered that I had nothing to say, they gave me a shot of ‘juice’. This was followed by the ‘doulab,’ a great classic of the Syrian jails. The victim, stuck in a tire suspended in the air, is beaten on the soles of the feet below. Then came the the ‘shabeh,’ which translates to ‘ghost’ in Arabic. Your arms are tied behind your back and then your body is hoisted into the air. I ended up telling them everything they wanted to hear, and I was released a few weeks later, but shortly afterwards, as crazy as it may seem, I received summons to report for military service in the regime’s army.