A Syrian former political prisoner says it “felt like a dream” when Bashar al-Assad’s murderous regime finally fell, bringing an end to decades of dictatorship.

Firas Filfleh, 38, experienced both joy and grief as he watched footage of people being liberated from prisons including Al-Ballouna in Homs – where he too was once tortured.

He said: “The scenes of tearing down statues amidst crowds chanting for the revolution and its heroes felt like a dream.

“Those moments were deeply moving and marked the realisation that the era of oppression had ended, paving the way for building a free Syria.”

Firas, who lives in Idlib, joined protests against the Assad regime as a young man and worked as a coordinator helping soldiers to defect.

He was arrested in a military security ambush in 2011 and endured 10 days of savage beatings, humiliation and interrogation.

Firas described one night when he heard guards beat an elderly man to death in a nearby cell, before calling to the other prisoners: “You’ll all die like this, under our boots.”

He was later transferred to Aleppo, then Damascus, and sentenced by a judge to 10 years in the infamous Sednaya political prison which was nicknamed the “human slaughterhouse”.

The liberation of inmates from the sprawling complex at Sednaya was one of the defining moments of the astonishing rebel offensive this month.

Firas’s sentence had to be approved by a judge in Aleppo and his family bribed a judge to secure his release. Sentenced in absentia, he returned to Idlib, which was then the only part of the country held by rebels.

As his country adapts to its new reality, Firas said life was already improving in areas of Syria previously controlled by Assad’s forces. He explained: “Despite the instability Syria is experiencing now, most citizens express overwhelming happiness at the fall of the oppressive regime.

“Tangible improvements include the availability of electricity, bread, and food supplies in areas that were previously under regime control—things that were once just a dream for them.”

Almost every household was touched by the previous regime’s brutality and criminals and killers must be brought to justice, Firas said.

He added: “We aspire to build a free, democratic, civil, and secular Syria – a Syria where we can express our views without fear or hesitation.”

The horrors that Bashar al-Assad inflicted on his people in the wake of the 2011 Arab spring have left deep physical and psychological scars affecting every generation.

Asked about her hopes for the future, Firas’s 10-year-old niece Razan said simply: “That no one bombs us.”

She went on: “That no one bombs us from planes with rockets, missiles, bombs, tanks, I don’t know what they are all called exactly.”

The youngster also hoped to visit Hama and Aleppo after previously feeling “imprisoned” in Idlib.

Razan’s mother, Firas’s sister Shaza, said their lives were once “burdened with fear” and constant worry about what would happen if Assad’s forces took control of Idlib.

She said: “We used to wake up to the sounds of aircraft, and we lost many friends and relatives due to the massacres caused by the airstrikes.”

When the regime collapsed on December 8, mum-of-two Shaza woke to her husband’s voice saying: “Get up, Bashar is gone!”

The 39-year-old added: “We felt that the sunrise was different, the morning was full of breaths of freedom.

“Our perspective on life changed, shifting from thoughts of how to secure our daily expenses to planning how we would return to normal life.

“Forgetting the past is not easy, but focusing on the future should occupy our minds more.”

Firas’s mother Raghdaa Kashour, 64, said life was once “full of fear and terror” and she could never forgive those who caused such pain and suffering to the Syrian people and “whose hearts knew no mercy or tolerance”.

The former teacher added: “I hope that a new government will be born out of the suffering we have lived through, to feel the suffering of the people.

“I hope that the new government will remove fear, oppression, and reverence for ‘the ruler’ from the minds of generations.”