What is the Damascus Dossier investigation?
The Damascus Dossier is a cross-border investigation revealing harrowing new details about one of the most brutal state-run killing systems of the 21st century: the regime of former Syrian president Bashar Assad.
Drawing on a cache of classified Syrian intelligence records obtained by German broadcaster NDR and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, the investigation exposes the inner workings of Assad’s security apparatus and its links to foreign governments and United Nations agencies .
ICIJ, NDR and 24 media partners in 20 countries spent over eight months organizing and analyzing the documents, consulting experts and interviewing Syrian families still searching for loved ones who vanished under Assad’s rule.
What are some of the key findings of the Damascus Dossier investigation?
The Damascus Dossier records illuminate a state policy of mass detention and execution. Under Assad’s rule, at least 160,000 Syrians were arrested and disappeared as the regime crushed dissent during the country’s civil war.
The investigation exposes how Syrian officials reduced the value of human life to paperwork. Death certificates signed by doctors at Harasta and Tishreen military hospitals, where torture victims were sent, almost uniformly listed “cardiorespiratory arrest” as the cause of death.
The files include tens of thousands of photographs — the largest collection of images of Syrian prisoners ever obtained by journalists. Taken by military photographers, the images show detainees who perished in regime hospitals and prisons, their bodies numbered and catalogued with bureaucratic precision. Images of the prominent activist Mazen al-Hamada are among the photographs.
What data was used in the Damascus Dossier investigation?
The investigation is based on more than 134,000 files, written primarily in Arabic — around 243 gigabytes of data. They span more than three decades, from the mid-90s through to December 2024, and originate from Syria’s Air Force Intelligence, General Intelligence Directorate and other security services.
The materials include internal memos, reports and communications revealing the daily operations of Assad’s surveillance and detention network, as well as its coordination with foreign allies, such as Russia and Iran, and its contacts with United Nations agencies working inside Syria. The highly sensitive dataset includes names of former Syrian intelligence personnel.
In addition, NDR obtained and shared with ICIJ and its partners over 70,000 files and photographs, including more than 33,000 chilling high-resolution photographs documenting the deaths of more than 10,200 Syrian prisoners primarily between 2015 and 2024.
Who is the source of the Damascus Dossier leak?
The Damascus Dossier is composed of two separate datasets obtained by NDR from different sources in 2025.
The source of the leaked photographs served as the head of the Evidence Preservation Unit of the military police in Damascus from 2020 to 2024. The images were stored on a hard drive. During the uprising, he secured the hard drive. According to him, his goal was to expose the crimes of the Assad regime. The data was passed on to NDR via third parties.
What will happen to the documents and photos? Will the public have access to them?
ICIJ compiled lists of more than 1,500 names of people who were arrested by the Syrian authorities or died in detention. NDR shared the names of detainees extracted from the documents and photographs with the U.N. Independent Institution on Missing Persons in the Syrian Arab Republic ; the Syrian Network for Human Rights ; Ta’afi , an initiative that provides resources to Syrian victims of detention and torture; and the Syrian Center for Legal Studies and Research , a German NGO that works to expose Syrian human rights violations and defend victims of such crimes.
Additionally, German prosecutors and the Syrian Center for Legal Studies and Research independently obtained and have the photos.
For further information, you can contact the organizations directly through the following emails:
Who are ICIJ’s partners on the Damascus Dossier investigation?
The investigation was led by ICIJ, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit global network of reporters, and NDR in collaboration with Süddeutsche Zeitung in Germany; The Toronto Star and CBC/Radio Canada in Canada; ARIJ in Egypt; The Washington Post in the U.S., and 19 others.
Find the full list of partners here .
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How can I join an ICIJ investigation?
ICIJ welcomes new offers to collaborate with journalists and prioritizes those with a proven record of high-quality investigations. Journalists seeking to partner with ICIJ should email [email protected] . ICIJ only partners with journalists.
How do I get in touch with ICIJ if I want to share a tip or documents?
ICIJ encourages whistleblowers to submit all forms of content that might be of public concern — documents, photos, video clips as well as story tips — and to do so securely. We accept all information that relates to potential wrongdoing by corporate, government or public service entities in any country, anywhere in the world. We do our utmost to guarantee the confidentiality of our sources.
Find out how to contact us securely here.
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