Britain, France, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United States are holding an exhibit at the United Nations of graphic photos taken in Syria by a former military police photographer that show evidence of brutal torture against detainees in Assad’s jails.
About two dozen of some of the 55,000 photographs taken – some showing eye gouging, strangulation and long-term starvation – went on display at U.N. headquarters in New York this week.
Former war crimes prosecutors have described the pictures as “clear evidence” of systematic torture and mass killings in Syria’s three-year-long civil war. The photographer has been identified by the code name “Caesar.” The pictures were smuggled out of Syria between 2011 and mid-2013.
Britain’s U.N. Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant said the aim of the exhibit was to raise awareness of the human rights abuses that Assad’s troops have been committing against the Syrian people.
The U.N. Security Council viewed the photos during an informal meeting last April. Russia and China vetoed a bid in May to refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court for possible prosecution of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the civil war.
Nagham al-Ghadiri, member of the political committee, said that the 55,000 photos of detainees killed under torture in Assad’s jails and which were leaked by Caesar provide compelling evidence that the Assad regime is the arch-terrorist in the region and can never be a partner in the battle against terror. (Source: Syrian Coalition + Agencies)
