The Syrian Ministry of Justice has issued a statement regarding the publication by some media outlets and online platforms of documents, photographs, and information related to victims who were subjected to violations and torture during the rule of the former regime.
In the statement, published on its official channels on Thursday, 4 December, the ministry said it is monitoring what some media outlets and online platforms are doing in terms of sporadically publishing documents, photographs, and information related to individuals who were subjected to grave violations and torture, which are being circulated under the pretext of the “former regime era”.
The Ministry of Justice clarified that these materials are leaked and were collected by unlawful means, and do not observe the necessary legal and ethical safeguards.
It pointed out that the random publication of these documents and photographs conflicts with the rights of the victims and harms the feelings of their relatives, warning that some entities may exploit these materials for blackmail and profiteering in ways that have nothing to do with human values and that constitute a violation of the dignity of the victims and their families.
The ministry stressed three main principles in this context, namely safeguarding the dignity of the victims and the rights of their families, protecting the evidence and preventing tampering with it, and documenting it within approved frameworks.
The Ministry of Justice called on all organizations, individuals, and entities in possession of documents, photographs, or data relating to victims of violations to hand them over to the competent official authorities, whether in the Ministry of Justice or in the relevant judicial bodies, to ensure they are dealt with in accordance with legal standards and in a way that serves the purpose of documentation, leading to uncovering the truth, prosecuting crimes, providing redress to victims, and addressing the consequences of violations.
It also affirmed that it will not hesitate to pursue anyone who violates regulations and laws, trades in the suffering of victims, or misuses or presents documents for unlawful purposes, stressing its readiness to cooperate with any “sincere” party working to reveal the truth, hold perpetrators to account, and secure justice for the victims.
The Ministry of Justice’s statement came against the backdrop of the circulation of photographs and documents published on some media outlets and online platforms and attributed to victims who were subjected to violations and torture by forces of the former regime.
The random publication of these materials, outside any legal or human-rights framework, has raised concerns among civil society and human rights organizations about the possibility of their exploitation in blackmail campaigns or trading in the suffering of victims, in addition to their use in inaccurate media narratives or for unlawful purposes.
70,000 files and photographs of torture victims
The Justice Ministry statement coincided with the publication on 4 December by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) of an investigation documenting the killing of more than ten thousand detainees, based on testimonies, death certificates, and thousands of photographs taken by military photographers of the bodies of detainees who died under torture or through neglect in prisons.
To interpret what these photographs show, a team of journalists from ICIJ, the German broadcaster NDR, and the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung analyzed a random sample of 540 images. They found that three out of four victims showed signs of starvation, almost two thirds bore visible marks of physical abuse, and roughly half of the bodies were naked and lying on the ground or on metal sheets.
The investigation lasted more than eight months and included organizing and analyzing the data, drawing on experts, and conducting interviews with Syrian families who are still searching for the fate of their loved ones who disappeared into the grip of the security services.
Despite this evidence, each photograph, the investigation notes, reflects the suffering of at least one family that is still looking for an answer in a country where the regime has changed, but where the layers of silence that accumulated over thousands of crimes have yet to be lifted.
ICIJ and NDR interviewed seven families whose relatives’ deaths were confirmed through the documents, some of whom received from the “Damascus Files” their first official proof of the death of a family member. NDR also shared the lists of names contained in the files with four nongovernmental and international governmental organizations, in the hope that they might help reveal the fate of others.
The investigation drew on more than 134,000 files written in Arabic, comprising 243 gigabytes of data, spanning from the mid-1990s until December 2024, and belonging to Air Force Intelligence, the General Intelligence Directorate, and other security agencies.
The materials include internal memoranda, reports, and correspondence that clarify the day-to-day workings of the regime’s surveillance and detention network, as well as information about coordination with foreign allies such as Russia and Iran, and with United Nations agencies operating inside Syria. The data also contains the names of former investigators and officers in Syrian intelligence services.
NDR also obtained more than 70,000 additional files and photographs, including 33,000 high-resolution images documenting the killing of more than 10,200 detainees between 2015 and 2024.
Trials for crimes committed under the former regime
The legal expert and specialist in transitional justice Mansour al-Omari said in a previous statement to Enab Baladi that trials for crimes committed under the deposed Assad regime require a legal framework that Syrian domestic law does not provide, and that preparations for such trials are well under way. He stressed that they must be built on solid foundations that take into account a set of legal, social, political, and financial considerations, which require time and patience from all sides.
On 28 August this year, Syria’s transitional president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, issued Decree No. 149 of 2025 establishing the National Commission for Transitional Justice, which is tasked with uncovering the truth about violations committed by the former regime, holding those responsible to account in coordination with the relevant authorities, providing redress to victims, achieving national reconciliation, and entrenching guarantees of non-repetition.
In November, member of the National Commission for Transitional Justice Ahmed Hazrouma said at a conference attended by Enab Baladi that the Commission has identified six main tracks for its work in the field of transitional justice, namely:
Truth-seeking, which will play a major and active role in matters of property and real-estate rights, and in relation to the system of corruption that was in place. Justice and accountability. Reparations. Guarantees of non-repetition. Commemoration and national memory. The hope of Syrians to build a new Syria through civil peace.
Syrian Justice Ministry warns against publishing photos of torture victims from Assad-era prisons Enab Baladi.
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