Cesar File’s Group

With the beginning of the Syrian revolution in March 2011 and in the face of the peaceful movement of civilians in Syria, the Syrian government continued to pursue a policy of detention and torture, which began nearly 50 years ago, but this time systematically and more broadly used against civilians. Between 2011 and 2013, the military photographer with the nickname “Caesar” collected photographs and documents, proving the killings under torture of detainees in secret facilities belonging to the security branches of the Syrian regime. At the end of 2013, Caesar, photographer in the Criminal Imaging Section of the Military Police’s Judicial Evidence Section, split about 55,000 photographs of the approximately 11,000 victims killed in all security branches. Their bodies were not handed over to their families and families received no information by the Syrian authorities. Later, in 2014, the Caesar Files Group was formed, which includes a number of peaceful activists inside and outside Syria with the aim of documenting serious violations of human rights, collecting evidence, highlighting the human rights situation in Syria, especially on detainees and enforced disappearances and working to prosecute the perpetrators of these crimes in Syria. The group is also helping families identify their relatives in pictures of victims and hand them over to families.