Okaz/Saudi Gazette

JEDDAH — The identity of "Caesar," the defected Syrian whistleblower, is revealed as Farid Al-Madhan from the town of Sheikh Maskin in Syria's Daraa governorate, according to Okaz newspaper. Okaz had kept the name of "Caesar" as a secret for four years, as he requested anonymity in the interview conducted with him along with his partner Sami and published on May 17, 2020 in the newspaper.

"Caesar" was a first assistant in the Syrian army, who defected from the Assad regime and leaked tens of thousands of photos of torture victims among Syrian civilians, which the international investigation committee, tasked with investigating war crimes in Syria, relied on to prove the atrocities and crimes of the former regime.

"Caesar" was behind the crucial Caesar Files – a collection of thousands of harrowing photographs documenting the torture and abuse of detainees under the brutal regime of Bashar al Assad following the 2011 uprising. His collection of tens of thousands of snapshots that were later smuggled out of Syria by him exposed the systematic torture and killing of detainees in regime prisons. The images captured a stark reality: Starved bodies, victims of brutal torture, and even children who were executed. Representing nearly 7,000 victims, these photos became undeniable evidence of crimes against humanity.

The Caesar Files are more than just a collection of images. They revealed the depths of the al-Assad regime’s brutality and underscored the urgent need for accountability. Caesar risked his life to gather and smuggle this evidence.

Since the outbreak of the Syrian revolution in March 2011, Farid was tasked with photographing the bodies of civilians who were victims of torture and murder at the hands of Bashar al-Assad's regime. He worked as a military photographer in the regime's army from 2000 until his defection in 2013. He is considered as the first and main source for the trial of Assad and his gang, as he succeeded in collecting about 27,000 photos of detainees and dead people inside the dungeons of the deposed regime, and sent the photos to his relatives outside Syria, then he succeeded in escaping with his family members.

"Caesar" succeeded in exposing Bashar's regime to the whole world, as no one knew what was going on behind bars and closed iron doors for hundreds of thousands of detainees. He leaked tens of thousands of photos of victims of torture carried out by the regime's security branches, which expose what is happening inside prisons and shed light on what it described as one of the greatest atrocities witnessed by humanity in its history.

Despite the regime's attempts to cast doubt on the torture photos, especially Assad, the Human Rights Watch confirmed the authenticity of the photos provided by "Caesar" related to the death of 6,786 people inside Syrian prisons, and the organization documented the victims through his photos. These images, smuggled out of Syria at great personal risk, became the foundation for the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act of 2019, a set of US sanctions targeting the regime’s key financial and military backers.

Along with Farid, Osama Othman, better known by his alias Sami, also played a crucial role in exposing the Assad regime’s war crimes, risking everything to ensure the world bore witness to the atrocities committed in Syrian prisons. The courage of Caesar and Sami in bringing these crimes to light not only shaped Western public opinion on the Syrian civil war but also contributed to the mounting pressure against Assad’s government.

The Caesar sanctions imposed by the US dealt a significant blow to Syria’s already struggling economy, isolating the regime further and limiting its ability to fund its war efforts. By December 2024, the economic collapse played a major role in the fall of the Assad regime.