One of the smugglers of torture photos from Syrian prisons revealed his identity, Osama Othman, known as “Sami,” who, along with “Caesar,” was able to provide photos of torture in Syrian prisons, leading to the issuance of the “Caesar Act.”

Sami, the twin witness with Caesar, spoke to Asharq Al-Awsat and said that he is Osama Othman, who today heads the board of directors of the Caesar Files for Justice organization, and was working as a civil engineer when the Syrian events broke out in 2011.

Sami lived in the Damascus countryside, and the area he lived in was under the control of factions within the framework of what was known as the “Free Army.” However, a person very close to him, who later became known as “Caesar,” worked in areas controlled by the Syrian army. His job was to document deaths in the departments of the Syrian security services with photos: This is a body without part of the head. This dead man has no eyes.

There were signs of severe torture. Some of them showed signs of starvation. Naked bodies with numbers. Thousands of pictures. Women, men, children... The crime of many of them was officially classified as "terrorism." But how could a child's crime be "terrorism"?

The ugliness of the crimes prompted Sami and Caesar to work together to document what was happening in Syrian prisons, specifically in Damascus, where Caesar worked and sometimes documented the deaths of no less than 70 people a day.

The two men began collaborating on the torture documentation in May 2011. Caesar would smuggle the photos on a USB drive and give them to Sami in opposition areas.

Sami and Caesar managed to smuggle tens of thousands of photos of torture victims’ bodies out of Syria. The photos were first revealed in 2014 after they were out of Syria. Today, the photos they smuggled are part of the “indictment” against the security services that were loyal to former President Bashar al-Assad.

While Sami warned the new authorities in Syria against ignoring accountability, he called for documenting the related human rights issues and archiving the data and evidence that will lead to a phase of accountability and transitional justice to achieve stability in Syrian society.

Sami refused to provide any information about how he and Caesar left Syria and arrived in Western countries. However, he simply said, in response to a question: “I am Osama Othman, a civil engineer from the Damascus countryside. Many people know me even though I hide under the name (Sami). I had to use it as a shield to protect me during the period of hard work on this complex file that many unknown heroes contributed to creating.”

On June 17, 2020, the United States began implementing the “Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act,” which imposed sanctions on 39 individuals and entities linked to the Syrian authorities, including the country’s president, Bashar al-Assad, and his wife, Asma al-Assad.