Syrian whistleblower under Assad regime reveals identity

The Syrian whistleblower, known by his alias Caesar, who documented severe human rights abuses by the Assad regime, has diclosed his identity as First Lieutenant Farid Al-Madhhan in an interview with Al Jazeera on February 6th, The New Arab reported.

Al-Madhhan was the head of the Forensic Evidence Department of the Military Police in Damascus. He fled Syria with over 54,000 pictures of victims of torture, brutality, starvation and murder in the Assad regime’s detention facilities in 2014.

Farid Al-Madhhan detailed 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,” taking the images from his Damascus office to his place of residence, Al-Maddhan said.

Subsequently, Al-Madhhan’s evidence was used by the US to enact the ‘Caesar Act’, which passed by both Democrats and Republicans in the US Senate and signed by US President Donald Trump in 2019 during his first term in office. This act followed lengthy campaigns by members of the Syrian opposition abroad.

The legislation came into force in June 2020 and imposed sanctions on the Assad regime.

Syria’s new government has called for the lifting of sanctions following the toppling of the Assad regime, a call that Al-Maddhan reiterated during his interview.

The New Arab