Years after exposing torture by al-Assad’s regime, Syria’s ‘Sami’ reveals himself

As Syria begins a new era without its ousted President Bashar al-Assad, a central figure in unveiling torture committed by the former regime has decided to leave the shadows speaking in an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper.

Osama Othman, better known as Sami, revealed his true identity and face for the first time.

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Othman’s code name, Sami, has been associated with Caesar, the man whose pseudonym was behind the renowned Caesar files that later became the setting stone for the US Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act.

A Syrian military defector using the pseudonym 'Caesar' wears a hood as he testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during a hearing titled, Nine Years of Brutality: Assad's Campaign Against the Syrian People on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., March 11, 2020. (Reuters)

The two cooperated together to smuggle thousands of photographs revealing crimes committed against detainees in Syrian prisons in the aftermath of the 2011 Syrian uprising.

Othman tells the paper that he used to work as a civil engineer when the uprising began.

He used to live in Damascus’s countryside, divided between areas opposing the regime and others supporting it.

The paper said Othman, who lived in the opposing part, was close to Caesar, who himself lived in regime-controlled areas and had an unusual job.

Caesar was tasked with documenting the deaths at departments of Syria’s security services by taking photographs of the dead bodies.

The photographs documented the torture that thousands underwent within al-Assad’s prisons. This prompted Caesar and Othman to work together in collecting the evidence of torture. Caesar began sending copies of the photographs he took on flash drives to Othman, the paper said.

“Even my children didn’t know that their father is Sami,” he told the paper. He said that once his son entered his room while he was looking at the pictures. “‘Dad, why are those people sleeping without clothes on?’ With his innocence he thought that they were asleep.”

Othman said that he was living in constant concern and fear of any reprisal against his family from the regime.

The paper said thousands of photographs were smuggled before they were revealed in 2014 after both Othman and Caesar left Syria.

“The nature of the work and the nature of the file…was a reason to make sure I hide my true identity and that of many of the team members [whom I work with],” he said.

“Today, and Thank God, we are in a completely different situation. We are in a new, different Syria. I wanted the Syrians to know what happened and to address them and the current authority in Damascus with what we hope would be the case regarding legal matters related to documenting and archiving data and evidence that will lead to a phase of accountability and transitional justice.”

Othman underscored the importance of preserving files, evidence and documents related to the former state institutions out of fear that “regime employees [who] continue to work will be able to hide and destroy files that are important in exposing the crimes of the former regime.”

He also called on the current authority to take immediate steps to reveal the fate of those detained and the victims who died under torture in al-Assad’s prisons. He said that it was the Syrian peoples’ right to know what happened to their families and loved ones.

“Tolerating perpetrators of crimes under any pretext constitutes a clear violation of humanitarian and legal standards,” Othman said. “[It] gives the green light to reproduce the tools of repression and violations that the security apparatuses, which still exist, used to practice.”

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