Syrian defector who laid bare Assad torture regime warns thousands have died

Photographer Caesar’ smuggled 53,000 images of those tortured and killed by the Assad regime out of the country

- BEL TREW

The Syrian military defector codenamed Caesar, who smuggled out more than 53,000 haunting images showing tortured, emaciated corpses of Syrian detainees – evidence that led to landmark sanctions – has warned that they are merely a “snapshot” of the full extent of crimes committed under the Assad regime.

Speaking exclusively to The Independent, the photographer also revealed how he managed to get the photographs out of Syria, hiding USB flash drives of evidence in his underwear before he was smuggled out of Syria with the help of rebels via a flour truck to Jordan. His family reported him kidnapped and murdered by terrorists to provide cover for his escape.

The former military photographer, who has testified anonymously about the evidence of savagery he witnessed to governments around the world, called for global efforts to assist Syria in bringing those responsible for the “worst crimes of the 21st century” to account.

The Independent spoke to Caesar, who has been living in absolute secrecy for a decade, by phone as our correspondent visited Military Hospital 601 in the Mezzah neighbourhood of Damascus, the exact spot where he took many of the horrific images that shocked the world.

Now empty since the stunning overthrow of Bashar al-Assad last weekend, the building stands as a chilling monument to the industrial-scale horrors committed by the former regime.

The images Caesar took, which also included photos of attack sites and the bodies of armed fighters or civilians killed in assaults, provided the first extensive glimpse into the atrocities committed by Assad’s government after the start of the 2011 revolution, which turned into a bloody civil war.

The images which showed emaciated mutilated bodies, some with eyes gouged out and numbers written on their arms or heads, were verified by human rights organisations and the FBI.