Syrian defector who smuggled torture images out of country warns of hundreds of thousands of deaths

Syrian citizen Ismail Elhany, from Idlib, father of Muhammad who was tortured and killed by the Assad regime. He learned of the death of his son in photos leaked by ‘Caesar’ - (Anadolu Agency/Getty)

The Syrian military defector codenamed Caesar, who smuggled out more than 53,000 haunting images showing tortured, emaciated corpses of Syrian detainees – evidence that led to landmark sanctions – has warned that they are merely a “snapshot” of the full extent of crimes committed under the Assad regime.

Speaking exclusively to The Independent, the photographer also revealed how he managed to get the photographs out of Syria, hiding USB flash drives of evidence in his underwear before he was smuggled out of Syria with the help of rebels via a flour truck to Jordan.