Syria's 'Caesar' who exposed Assad regime crimes reveals his identity

A Syrian whistleblower popularly known as "Caesar" who leaked thousands of photos documenting torture and mass killings in Syria's detention centres under Bashar al Assad regime has revealed his identity for the first time.

In an interview with the Qatar-headquartered broadcaster Al Jazeera on Thursday, Farid Nada al-Madhan, a former forensic officer with the Syrian military police, confirmed that he was the man behind the largest leak of evidence implicating the Assad regime in war crimes.

Al-Madhan recounted how he leaked documents exposing torture and killings in prisons of the Assad regime, which was toppled on December 8 by anti-regime forces.

Originally from Daraa, he worked as the head of the registry of the forensic evidence department of the military police in Damascus, where he secretly gathered and smuggled thousands of images of detainees who died under torture.

"The orders to photograph and document the crimes of Bashar al-Assad's regime came from the highest levels of power to ensure that executions were carried out," Al-Madhan said.

He explained that the first documented images of detainees' bodies were taken in March 2011 at the Tishreen Military Hospital morgue, showing protesters from Daraa.

The bodies of those killed in detention were photographed at the morgues of Tishreen Military Hospital and Harasta Hospital, he added.

"From the moment a detainee entered prison, a number was assigned to his body after execution," Al-Madhan said.

As the number of deaths increased, the regime converted the parking lot of Mezzeh Military Hospital into a staging area for photographing bodies, he noted.

Al-Madhan said that security officials expressed their "unwavering loyalty" to Assad's regime through images of deceased detainees.

"At the start of the upraising, the number of bodies ranged from 10 to 15 per day, eventually rising to 50 daily," he said.

He also revealed that the regime falsely listed the cause of death for detainees as cardiac or respiratory failure.

"Thousands of detainees' families were systematically extorted without receiving any information about their loved ones," he added.

Al-Madhan said that he smuggled the pictures in "hidden memory cards inside his clothing and loaves of bread to avoid detection."

He added that he used both "an official military ID and a forged civilian ID to travel between his workplace in Damascus and his home in Al-Tall."

"The smuggling operation took place almost daily for three years," transferring the images from his office in Damascus to his residence, he added.

Al-Madhan described the extreme precautions he took, explaining that he was searched at checkpoints controlled by both regime forces and the Free Syrian Army.

He noted that he had decided to defect from the Syrian regime at the start of the 2011 uprising but postponed it to gather as much evidence as possible.

Caesar Act and calls for its repeal

Regarding his nickname and its link to the US-imposed Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, which sanctioned the Syrian regime in 2019 and took effect in 2020, Al-Madhan called on Washington to lift the sanctions on the Syrian people.

The law aimed to cut off Assad's financial resources and push him toward UN-led negotiations to end the war in Syria. By December 2024, the economic collapse played a major role in the fall of the Assad regime.

As for how he left Syria, Al-Madhan said: "I exited through Jordan to Qatar, where a law firm prepared my case to hold the Syrian regime accountable."

He urged his country's new government to establish national courts to prosecute war criminals.

The UN's Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic reported in late January that arbitrary detention, torture and enforced disappearances were systematically used to suppress dissent under the Assad regime.

The report, titled Web of Agony: Arbitrary Detention, Torture and Ill-Treatment by former Government forces in the Syrian Arab Republic, was based on thousands of witness interviews detailing abuses committed under Assad’s rule.

"Since 2011, Syrian civilians have been subjected to arbitrary detention, torture and ill-treatment, enforced disappearances and related violations in order to quash dissent and erode opposition to the government led by former President Assad," the report said.

It noted that these "acts amounted to widespread, gross violations of human rights and crimes against humanity and since the emergence of armed conflict, violations of international humanitarian law and war crimes."

Detainees were released from torture chambers following the regime’s overthrow, calling it an unimaginable shift for Syrians just two months ago.

The report described Assad-era detention abuses as shocking to the Syrian people and highlighted the ongoing suffering of tens of thousands of families still searching for missing loved ones.

Assad, Syria's leader for nearly 25 years, fled to Russia on December 8, 2024, ending the regime of the Baath Party, which had been in power since 1963.

The next day, Ahmed al Sharaa, the leader of the new Syrian administration, who was appointed on January 29 as president, tasked Mohammed al Bashir with forming a government to oversee the transitional period.