The Syrian military intelligence officers who detained Ghazi Mohammed al-Mohammed told him to forget his name and who he was.

They took away his papers, he said, and told him: "Now you're number 3006."

For five and a half months Mohammed languished in one of president Bashar al-Assad's jails, losing 40 kilograms (88 pounds), all the while under the threat of imminent execution.

Since Islamist-led rebels toppled Assad's paranoid and brutal government one week ago, numerous ex-prisoners like Mohammed are shedding light on the depths of the despair visited upon Syria's people over the past decades.

Mohammed, an emaciated man propped up on cushions in front of the stove in Sarmada, near Aleppo in northwestern Syria, is a shadow of his former self.

The 39-year-old swears he was never involved in politics in Syria, that he is a simple merchant trying to make a living along with his brothers.

He was seized on a brief business trip to Damascus, and plunged into a living hell.

"The moment comes when you lose all hope," said Mohammed, his beard and dark hair closely cropped.

"Towards the end I just wanted to die, waiting for when they would execute us. I was........

© International Business Times