[Video transcript]

A family reunited. Father, mother and son kept apart for years by a brutal regime. That brutality echoes here in their home in Damascus. 

Mohamad al-Beek: "I do not forgive them (the regime). Why would I forgive them? They treated us like animals, I hated going to visit my own son." 

Zahra Askari: "When he called me so his father could go pick him up, I could not believe it. They told me, 'It is your son, Ali.' I could not believe it." 

Bashar al-Assad's authorities arrested Ali for deserting the Syrian Army, he tells us. They accused him of terrorism, he says, because he refused to attack fellow citizens. 

Ali al-Beek, former prisoner under Assad regime: "I could not do it. Syrians are my brothers, we are one people. The regime wanted me to stay with them and kill my people or be accused of what they accused me of. I left the regime when I saw what the regime was doing to the people. What did they do? They were asking for freedom. Some in the military shot back, some didn’t. I left because they forced me to beat and arrest people. I did not want to do that. My crime is that I walked away." 

For that, they sentenced Ali to 20 years in the notorious Saydnaya prison. 

He tells us they tortured him to the point where he wanted to die. 

When, in December, rebels overthrew the Assad regime, they opened the prison and freed those inside.  

Ali al-Beek: "We heard the sound of gunfire. We thought the army had come in to kill us. We started hiding and moving away from the door. Suddenly the door opened. They said, 'God is great. Bashar al-Assad has fallen and you are free.'"

Elsewhere in Damascus, at a hospital morgue, Syrians gather looking for traces of loved ones who will not come home. 

First woman: "He was arrested in 2017 and has not appeared yet. When we ask about him, they say 'we do not have him.' They do not tell us if he is imprisoned or not, nothing. We are waiting for him to come up, we hope."  

Second woman: "Motaz Adnan al-Qassar, this is the last photo of him. He got himself a passport and wanted to flee but someone reported him." 

Third woman: "Isn't this a sin? She was just 35 years old. She had no children, no one, no family." 

As Ali starts his new life in new Syria, he knows that he is lucky. 

He says he wants justice for those who did not have his good fortune.