He changed everything
Syria’s torture photographer “Caesar” reveals himself
His oppressive photographs were partly responsible for the world learning about the atrocities committed by the Assad regime in Syria. Under the pseudonym "Caesar", he documented the atrocities committed in the prisons of the toppled dictator. Now the man with the blue sweater has revealed his identity.
Two months after the fall of long-term ruler Bashar al-Assad in Syria, "Caesar" has revealed his identity. "I am Lieutenant Farid al-Madhan, the (former) head of the forensic evidence department at the military police in Damascus, known as Caesar," he said in an interview with the Al-Jazeera broadcaster on Thursday.
The Syrian military photographer fled Syria in 2013. He smuggled around 55,000 photos from the years 2011 to 2013 out of the country, documenting mass torture and killings in Syrian prisons. His escape had far-reaching consequences.
"Caesar" law in the USA
Based on his later testimony before Congress, the USA passed the so-called "Caesar Act", on the basis of which Washington imposed sanctions against Assad, his wife Asma and dozens of supporters in 2020. In Germany, the Netherlands and France, the "Caesar" photos were also the basis for verdicts in trials concerning murder and torture by the Syrian state.
In the Al-Jazeera interview, Madhan, who says he is currently in France, described himself as the son of a free Syria. According to his own statements, he comes from the city of Daraa, "the cradle of the Syrian revolution".
USB stick revealed the horror
After the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011, he was commissioned to "take photos of victims of imprisonment", he said. According to him, this included "old men, women and children who were arrested at security checkpoints in Damascus and at protest sites".
"They were detained, tortured and killed in a brutal and systematic way, and their bodies were taken to army morgues to be photographed and put in mass graves," he said.
He had only postponed resigning from his post and fleeing the country because he wanted to collect "the largest possible number of pictures" to "document the crimes against humanity and incriminate the Syrian government authorities".
He brought the photos out of Syria on a USB stick. In order to smuggle the storage medium past the authorities, he sometimes hid it in his socks or a loaf of bread.
New leadership in Syria
The Syrian civil war broke out in 2011 when Assad brutally crushed a nationwide uprising against his government. In 13 years, more than 500,000 people have been killed. On December 8, fighters led by the Islamist HTS militia stormed Damascus and Assad fled to Russia, which had supported his regime militarily. A transitional government led by the HTS is currently controlling the country's destiny.
This article has been automatically translated,
read the original article here.
Kommentare
Willkommen in unserer Community! Eingehende Beiträge werden geprüft und anschließend veröffentlicht. Bitte achten Sie auf Einhaltung unserer Netiquette und AGB. Für ausführliche Diskussionen steht Ihnen ebenso das krone.at-Forum zur Verfügung. Hier können Sie das Community-Team via unserer Melde- und Abhilfestelle kontaktieren.
User-Beiträge geben nicht notwendigerweise die Meinung des Betreibers/der Redaktion bzw. von Krone Multimedia (KMM) wieder. In diesem Sinne distanziert sich die Redaktion/der Betreiber von den Inhalten in diesem Diskussionsforum. KMM behält sich insbesondere vor, gegen geltendes Recht verstoßende, den guten Sitten oder der Netiquette widersprechende bzw. dem Ansehen von KMM zuwiderlaufende Beiträge zu löschen, diesbezüglichen Schadenersatz gegenüber dem betreffenden User geltend zu machen, die Nutzer-Daten zu Zwecken der Rechtsverfolgung zu verwenden und strafrechtlich relevante Beiträge zur Anzeige zu bringen (siehe auch AGB). Hier können Sie das Community-Team via unserer Melde- und Abhilfestelle kontaktieren.