Watan-A well-known Syrian figure, referred to for years as the “Grave Digger,” revealed his identity today, Sunday, to remind the world of the horrific murders committed by the regime of ousted president Bashar al-Assad against the Syrian people. Syrian state news agency (SANA) reported that the “Grave Digger” identified himself during a speech at an Arab conference held at Harvard University by his real name, Muhammad Afif Naifa, a resident of the Syrian capital, Damascus.
The agency added that Naifa spoke at the conference about the testimonies he had provided before both the U.S. Congress and the “Syrian War Crimes Court” in Germany, noting that his testimonies helped expose the crimes committed by the previous regime against detainees, including the mass burial of thousands of bodies, including children tortured to death.
Naifa, in his speech today, called for the lifting of economic sanctions on Syria, which were imposed on the fallen regime due to its crimes. He pointed out that the Syrian people are suffering from these sanctions, even though four months have passed since the fall of the regime. He also stressed the necessity of holding all perpetrators of crimes against Syrians accountable in court to face justice.
Naifa Exposes Mass Graves of Assad’s Torture Victims
Naifa was responsible for burying the victims of torture in mass graves between 2011 and 2018, before eventually being able to leave Syria. In his testimony before the U.S. Congress on June 9, 2022, he described trucks that came twice a week from security branches and military hospitals, each carrying between 300 and 600 bodies of people who had been tortured to death, including children, preparing them for burial in mass graves.
Naifa’s testimonies, along with thousands of photos leaked by “Caesar” (First Sergeant Fares al-Madhoun), the head of the judicial evidence department in the military police in Damascus, helped expose the atrocities of the fallen regime against Syrians who rose up against his rule to the entire world. Prior to this, Naifa testified before the “Syrian War Crimes Court” in Koblenz, Germany, in the trial of former intelligence officer Anwar Raslan, who was convicted of committing crimes against humanity.
Naifa spoke in his testimonies about three refrigerated trucks, each carrying between 300 and 600 bodies, which came twice every week from the security branches and military hospitals in Damascus. He explained that these victims had been tortured to death. He confirmed that he had witnessed the burial of more than 6,000 bodies, some of which showed signs of torture, in mass graves.
“Caesar,” or Fares al-Madhoun, a former photographer in the military police who defected from the regime in 2013, took 55,000 photos of bodies showing signs of torture in Syrian prisons, before the refrigerated trucks arrived to transport them to a massive pit, where the “Grave Digger” would dispose of them haphazardly.
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