at the trial of Syrian dignitaries in Paris, edifying testimonies on the regime’s jails

On the second day of the trial of three senior officials of the Syrian regime, in Paris, photos from the “Cesar” file were shown.

A trying day at the trial of three Syrian dignitaries at the Paris Assize Court. Since Tuesday, May 21, three men who are part of Bashar Al Assad’s bodyguards have been prosecuted for crimes against humanity. The Paris Assize Court must try three senior officials in default by default. Syrian regime in the Dabbagh affair, named of a father and his son, Franco-Syrians arrested, tortured and left for dead. Today’s hearing delved into the horror of torture practiced by the Damascus regime. Franceinfo attended the hearing where terrible photos were presented.

These photos come from the “Cesar” file, named after this Syrian army photographer who exfiltrated photos of 6,700 corpses of civilians tortured by the regime. On the screens in the Assizes room, around ten photos projected on the screens are enough to convey the horror. We discover naked bodies, swollen, damaged, burned, all extremely thin, lying on the ground next to each other piled up in garages. “At the beginning, I photographed five to seven per day, after that it was more like 30 to 35″, said Cesar, who chose to run away. Written on the skin in black marker on their body the number of the detainee and the detention center.

To make matters worse, the forensic doctor even stuck the autopsy report on the foreheads of the corpses. These photos testify to the systematic nature of these tortures and forced disappearances. “We believe that the Syrian government used the detention centers to break the opposition of the resistance”launches to the bar a magistrate who has collected a great deal of evidence within the UN in this case, and in particular documents emanating directly from the Syrian government.

“In Syria, from 2011, when you are arrested, you disappear, you no longer exist. You go buy bread, you go to a demonstration and you may never come back”continues journalist Garance Le Caisne, who met Cesar. “It is a stranglehold on the population, the detention centers are there to torture you. The torture is there to silence you, to destroy you, it is such a physical and moral tear that you are never again the You even float between life and death, that’s torture.”, concludes the journalist. According to experts, more than 95,000 Syrians disappeared in regime prisons between March 2011 and 2023.