Latest news with #Madhhan
CBS News
05-03-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Caesar, a former Syrian military photographer, unmasked
For over a decade, the world only knew him as "Caesar." His photographs, harrowing and haunting, were smuggled out of Syria at great risk. They offer a rare, unfiltered glimpse into the systematic torture and mass killing inside former President Bashar al-Assad's prisons. Caesar remained a faceless witness to some of Assad's darkest atrocities, but the dictator's collapse in December 2024 allowed him to step into the light. In a televised interview with Al Jazeera in February he revealed himself. His hands tapped nervously as he spoke, releasing the weight of 12 years of civil war, he said: "I am First Lieutenant Farid al-Madhhan, the (former) head of the forensic evidence department at the military police in Damascus, known as Caesar." He fled Syria in 2013, taking with him about 55,000 graphic pictures he'd photographed between 2011 and 2013. With support from Mouaz Moustafa and his nongovernmental organization, the Syrian Emergency Task Force, Madhhan told Scott Pelley for a report that aired in 2021: "I did all of this. I risked my life and the lives of my family in order to show and expose to the entire world the true face of this dictatorship of the Assad regime." Former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues Stephen J. Rapp called Madhhan's images the strongest case against a dictator he'd ever seen. "We've got better evidence against Assad than we had against Milosevic. Maybe even the Nazis. They didn't take individual photos of their victims. Assad's people did," Rapp said. Madhhan shared with us never-before-seen images he smuggled out of Syria—skeletal bodies, evidence of starvation, bruises from beatings and methodical cruelty. They weren't just photos. They were proof. They were the truth. Though Assad's crimes were condemned, nothing stopped him. We titled our piece "Handcuffed to the Truth" to illustrate this cruel paradox. For a decade, Madhhan's photos helped families search for their loved ones and served as evidence that could shackle Assad's regime to their crimes. Then, in December 2024, the Syrian people bore witness to the unthinkable. Assad's empire crumbled as rebel groups reclaimed the country. Soldiers fled in fear, and Assad himself escaped to Russia. When we visited Damascus days after the regime's fall, feelings of peace and hope were palpable. Justice felt possible for the first time since we began reporting on the crisis. Legal authorities in Europe have initiated proceedings against former government officials, and Madhhan's catalog of evidence and 2014 Congressional testimony will be paramount to any case. While we were inside a free Syria, crowds took to the streets in both jubilation and grief. The conflicting emotions reflected the aftermath of Assad's brutal rule—over half a million lives lost, millions displaced, and a country in ruins. Syria's next chapter is yet to be written. Like Madhhan, we will shine a light on the toll of Syria's civil war, so the truth no longer hides in the shadows.
Middle East Eye
07-02-2025
- Politics
- Middle East Eye
Farid al-Madhhan: Syrian whistleblower 'Caesar' reveals himself in TV interview
The Syrian whistleblower known as Caesar, who documented countless cases of human rights abuses during the time of the Bashar al-Assad government, revealed himself as First Lieutenant Farid al-Madhhan in an interview with Al Jazeera on Thursday. Madhhan, who originates from the southern city of Daraa, said he was the head of the Forensic Evidence Department of the Military Police in Damascus before fleeing his country with over 54,000 pictures of victims of torture, starvation, murder and other crimes in the Syrian government's detention centres in 2024. '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,' he said. According to him, at the start of the anti-government protests in Syria in 2011, about 10 to 15 bodies would be brought into the security branches he worked in each day. By 2013, that number increased to 50 a day. Most of these cases would have 'cardiac arrest' as a listed cause for their death, which would later be known as a euphemism for death under torture. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters Explaining how he smuggled out the images, Madhhan said he used 'hidden memory cards inside his clothing and loaves of bread to avoid detection'. He told Al Jazeera that he used '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,' he added, explaining the precautions he had to take as he was often searched by both government and opposition forces at checkpoints. 'Lift the Caesar sanctions' The images Madhhan shared gained international notoriety and were used as crucial evidence of the abuses carried out in Syria under Assad's rule. Many of the images were displayed in the US Holocaust Museum and at the United Nations. Massacres and resilience in Hama, Syria's insubordinate city Read More » His evidence was then used by the US to implement the 'Caesar Act', named after his alias and signed by President Donald Trump in 2019. When it came into force in June 2020, the legislation imposed heavy sanctions on the now-toppled Assad government. Following the fall of Assad on 8 December 2024, Madhhan says sanctions must now be lifted in order to help the Syrian people rebuild. 'After the blessed Syrian revolution triumphed, and following the fall of the tyrant Assad regime, we call on the American government to lift the Caesar sanctions, because the reason for these sanctions is gone with the demise of the criminal Assad regime,' he said. His call comes after several pleas from Syria's new authorities for the lifting of international sanctions. The US eased its sanctions with a six-month waiver on some humanitarian sectors, while the European Union's foreign ministers recently agreed on a roadmap to ease their own sanctions. 'There are more than 16,000 criminals from the extinct Assad regime accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity' - Farid al-Madhhan In addition, Madhhan said he hope the new rulers in Damascus would open 'national courts that will prosecute and hold perpetrators of war crimes accountable'. 'As the Syrian Network for Human Rights mentions, there are more than 16,000 criminals from the extinct Assad regime accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity,' he said. The fall of Assad, which ended his family's five-decade rule, saw fighters open countless prisons, where thousands of political prisoners were held for years. Mass graves have been identified where it is alleged that tens of thousands of Assad's victims were buried. Calls for justice and accountability continue, as many Syrians pursue their search for their missing relatives.
