Farid al-Mazhan, the man behind thousands of photos of tortured bodies in Syrian detention centers, nicknamed “Caesar,” revealed his identity for the first time on Thursday in an interview with the Qatari channel Al Jazeera. (Screenshot)
A Syrian whistleblower, who smuggled tens of thousands of pictures depicting torture under Bashar al-Assad, on Thursday revealed his identity for the first time, two months after the longtime ruler was toppled.
"I am First Lieutenant Farid al-Madhan, the [former] head of the forensic evidence department at the military police in Damascus, known as Caesar," he said in a televised interview with Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera.
He emphasized that after the start of the uprising in Syria in 2011, his mission was to "photograph the bodies of the deceased in detention, elderly people, women and children arrested at checkpoints in Damascus, or during protests calling for freedom and dignity." "They were arrested, tortured, executed in a methodical and bloody manner, before their bodies were transferred to military morgues to be photographed, then buried in mass graves," he continued.
Assad regime ‘murderer’
In 2014, he defected, taking more than 50,000 horrific photos, after Bashar al-Assad's regime brutally repressed pro-democracy demonstrations. "It was an existential choice: Either I stayed with this murderous regime and became complicit, or I left it, accepting the consequences of my decision, namely being hunted, prosecuted and threatened with death," he explained. He specified that he delayed his departure to collect "the largest possible number of photos documenting and incriminating the Syrian regime's services for crimes against humanity."
He also added that he smuggled the photos on USB drives hidden in his socks or food, crossing checkpoints held by both government forces and opposition factions, amid the war. Now settled in France, he said he first fled to Jordan, then Qatar.
His photos are the basis of a U.S. law known as the 'Caesar Act,' which came into effect in 2020, imposing economic sanctions against Syria, and initiating judicial proceedings in Europe against former collaborators of Bashar al-Assad.
In this 50-minute interview, he called for lifting sanctions and "international and regional support to rebuild our free country."
