Following the reversal of an earlier decision by the College of Quaestors, the European Parliament will host a public exhibition showing showing a selection from the Caesar photographs. The organisers write:
The Caesar Exhibition displays photographs of detainees’ bodies transferred from the Syrian regime’s prisons and detention centres to military Hospitals 607 and 601 where former military policeman of the Syrian army – known by the pseudonym “Caesar” – was assigned to photograph and document the bodies.
Caesar fled Syria in 2013 and smuggled out over 55,000 photos of approximately 11,000 Syrians tortured by the Assad regime since the start of the Syrian revolution in March 2011. The bodies show evidence of physical injury of the sort that would result from starvation, brutal beating, strangulation and other forms of torture and killing. The 11,000 victims photographed represent only a fraction of the systematic torture and killing that take place inside Syrian regime’s prisons.
The “Caesar” photographs were analysed by a first-rate legal and forensic team in early 2014 and then shared with and processed by the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry (COI) which cited them as clear evidence of systematic human rights violations by the Assad regime.
Location: European Parliament, PHS Building, 3rd Floor, Right side of the Hemicycle.
Hosted by: MEP Alyn Smith (Greens/EFA); MEP Anna Maria Corazza Bildt (EPP); MEP Marietje Schaake (ALDE); MEP Vincent Peillon (S&D); MEP Fabio Massimo Castaldo (EFDD); MEP Ana Gomes (S&D); MEP Antonio Panzeri (S&D); and MEP Ignazio Corrao (EFDD).
Co-Hosted by: Syrian Association for Missing and Conscience Detainees; National Coalition of Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces; Euro-Syrian Democratic Forum; and No Peace Without Justice.
There will also be an exhibit of Caesar photographs at the US Congress from 15th July. We hope there can soon be a similar exhibition at the Palace of Westminster, as there are still some in the UK who entertain ‘lesser evil’ ideas about Assad, as heard most recently from Lord West and from Alison Phillips of the Mirror.
Links:
Images of Syrian torture on display at UN: ‘It is imperative we do not look away’, by Raya Jalabi, The Guardian, 11 March 2015.
Syrian torture: Will photos turn US opinion?, by Kim Ghattas, BBC News, 27 January 2015.
Documenting Evil: Inside Assad’s Hospitals of Horror, by Adam Ciralsky, Vanity Fair, 11 June 2015.
Earlier posts on the Caesar photographs: Whistleblowers, and Let’s talk about Crime.