Assad regime torture whistleblower Caesar identity revealed as officer Farid al-Madhhan, Syria military police forensic chief

The Syrian whistleblower known as Caesar, who documented serious human rights abuses by the Assad regime, has revealed his identity as First Lieutenant Farid Al-Madhhan in an interview with Al Jazeera on Thursday.

Al-Madhhan was the Head of the Forensic Evidence Department of the Military Police in Damascus before fleeing Syria with over 54,000 harrowing pictures of the victims of torture, brutality, starvation and murder in Assad's detention complexes in 2014.

The images gained notoriety and were widely used to publicise accounts of the brutality of the Syrian regime, with many later displayed at the US Holocaust Museum and at the United Nations.

Following long campaigns by members of the Syrian opposition abroad, Al-Madhhan's evidence was used by the US to implement to the 'Caesar Act', named after his alias, which passed by both Democrats and Republicans in the US Senate.

Signed by US President Donald Trump in 2019 during his first term in office, the legislation which imposed heavy sanctions on the toppled Assad regime came into force in June 2020.

The transitional government in Damascus, led by interim Syrian president Ahmed al-Sharaa, has called for the lifting of US sanctions now that the Assad regime is gone, something that Al-Maddhan also called for during the interview.

Al-Madhhan hails from the city of Daraa, known as the 'Cradle of the Syrian revolution' that eventually toppled Assad in December last year.

The whistleblower described how he smuggled the pictures out of Syria in “hidden memory cards inside his clothing, and loaves of bread to avoid detection.”

“The smuggling operation took place almost daily,” transferring the images from his office in Damascus to his residence, Al-Maddhan added.