After 13 years of searching, a Syrian man learns his brother’s fate A trove of leaked records provides new evidence of thousands of Assad regime killings — and a chance for closure for families.

ICIJ's #DamascusDossier investigation lays bare the bureaucratic apparatus of former Syrian president Bashar Assad's regime that reduced each detainee’s death to anodyne paperwork designed to mask this campaign of mass murder.

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After 13 years of searching, a Syrian man learns his brother’s fate A trove of leaked records provides new evidence of thousands of Assad regime killings — and a chance for closure for families.

A year after the Assad regime collapsed, grieving families are still grappling with a lack of information about those who disappeared into the country's vast prison network.

ICIJ's #DamascusDossier reporters spoke to families who are searching for answers:

After 13 years of searching, a Syrian man learns his brother’s fate A trove of leaked records provides new evidence of thousands of Assad regime killings — and a chance for closure for families.

A year after the Assad regime collapsed, grieving families are still grappling with a lack of information about those who disappeared into the country's vast prison network.

ICIJ's #DamascusDossier reporters spoke to families who are searching for answers:

What an honor! The #DamascusDossier team has been nominated for the prestigious Grimme Award in the category “Special Journalistic Achievement.” Congratulations to the whole team! NDR/WDR/SZ @recherche.ndr.de @icij.org
www.grimme-preis.de/presse/press...

United Nations paid $11M to Syrian security firm owned by Assad intelligence services, documents show For over a decade, U.N. aid agencies poured millions into the company despite warnings from human rights advocates.

ICIJ's #DamascusDossier examines how the Assad regime profited from U.N. contracts — and pressured the organization to keep the money flowing after its ties to Shorouk for Protection, Guarding and Security Services were exposed.

After 13 years of searching, a Syrian man learns his brother’s fate A trove of leaked records provides new evidence of thousands of Assad regime killings — and a chance for closure for families.

The #DamascusDossier captures the institutional collapse at the height of Syria’s civil war: With the scale of death overwhelmed the Assad regime’s prisons and hospitals, some files are simply hastily scrawled notes listing the names of dead detainees.

Assad’s archive of death Photographs of more than 10,000 regime victims capture a campaign of torture and mass murder in haunting, meticulous detail.

ICIJ's #DamascusDossier documents included over 33,000 chilling high-resolution photographs of more than 10,200 Syrian prisoners.

The skeletal remains are the grotesque results of former Syrian president Bashar Assad’s killing machine.

After 13 years of searching, a Syrian man learns his brother’s fate A trove of leaked records provides new evidence of thousands of Assad regime killings — and a chance for closure for families.

The #DamascusDossier — an ICIJ investigation based on a cache of over 134,000 Syrian security and intelligence records — offers an unprecedented glimpse into the Assad regime’s killing machine, revealing the ghastly evidence of the regime’s crackdown.

Deadly Gaza Aid Sites, Damascus Dossier, Exploiting Sudanese Refugees: 2025’s Best Investigative Stories from the Middle East and North Africa Also featuring exposés on sex-trafficking of workers in Dubai, secret mass deportations of Tunisians from the EU, and unlicensed addiction treatment centers in Egypt.

@gijn.org Arabic team compiled a curated list of the strongest investigative stories published last year and described ICIJ's #DamascusDossier as “one of the most consequential investigations of 2025.” It also highlighted our reporting on Russia’s ghost ships haunting Libya.

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gijn.org Deadly Gaza Aid Sites, Damascus Dossier, Exploiting Sudanese Refugees: 2025’s Best Investigative Stories from the Middle East and North Africa

Editor's Picks: The #DamascusDossier uncovered systematic torture & killings under Assad, while arijnetwork revealed sexual violence against Sudanese refugees in Egypt.

In the Middle East and North Africa, courageous reporting continues to hold power to account.

Here are the top 10 journalism collaborations of 2025 Every year, the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University tracks journalism collaborations through its database, the…

ICIJ's #ChinaTargets, The #CoinLaundry and #DamascusDossier were part of @centercoopmedia.bsky.social’s picks for the top 10 collaborations of 2025: ICIJ "delivered three massive investigations in 2025 that exemplify the power of cross-border collaboration."

Damascus Dossier stories from around the world - ICIJ Reporters from 26 newsrooms across 20 countries uncovered new details about the Assad regime’s crimes — and how authorities are still seeking justice.

#DamascusDossier reporters found new details about the Assad regime’s systematic torture and murder of civilians; information about money funneled out of Syria by the ruling class; and explored how European authorities have responded to calls for justice.

Inside the Damascus Dossier: From leaked images to verified data - ICIJ ICIJ and its partners organized and analyzed thousands of chilling photographs to assemble comprehensive victim lists and quantify the human toll behind a sensitive data leak.

One year after the fall of former Syrian president Bashar Assad, the #DamascusDossier leak shines a light on the brutality of Assad’s rule and the lengths his regime took to catalog the bodies of those killed during his last decade in power.

After 13 years of searching, a Syrian man learns his brother’s fate A trove of leaked records provides new evidence of thousands of Assad regime killings — and a chance for closure for families.

ICIJ's #DamascusDossier investigation is based on a trove of leaked records that provides evidence of thousands of killings under former Syrian president Bashar Assad's regime — and a chance for closure for families.

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Damascus Dossier stories from around the world - ICIJ Reporters from 26 newsrooms across 20 countries uncovered new details about the Assad regime’s crimes — and how authorities are still seeking justice.

In Austria, two Syrian security officials who were granted asylum have been accused by prosecutors of torturing civilians protesting the Assad regime. Both men deny any wrongdoing.

Learn more about the reporting from our #DamascusDossier partners:

Inside the Damascus Dossier: From leaked images to verified data - ICIJ ICIJ and its partners organized and analyzed thousands of chilling photographs to assemble comprehensive victim lists and quantify the human toll behind a sensitive data leak.

The #DamascusDossier dataset was different from any other ICIJ has received in its 25-year history. The challenges were emotional as well as intellectual.

Learn about the data team's process:

About the Damascus Dossier investigation - ICIJ An exposé into Assad’s vast system for the detention, torture and murder of Syrian citizens — and the international forces that financed his regime.

Files in the #DamascusDossier represent families left to wonder, lives erased and a system designed to conceal mass murder behind bureaucratic order. This leaked dataset provided evidence to some families about the death of their relatives.

Syrische Millionen: Die Geldspur nach Österreich Wie Assads Elite in Wien Firmen gründete, Immobilien kaufte und nach Deutschland expandierte. Eine internationale Recherchekooperation, an der auch profil beteiligt ist, wertete geheime Dokumente des ...

Zum Jahresende noch eine besonders aufwühlende internationale Groß-Recherche: #DamascusDossier unter der Leitung von @icij.org und @recherche.ndr.de. In Österreich recherchierten @profil.at und ORF @martinthuer.at Miriam Beller und Ulla Kramar-Schmid 8/8

www.profil.at/investigativ...

About the Damascus Dossier investigation - ICIJ An exposé into Assad’s vast system for the detention, torture and murder of Syrian citizens — and the international forces that financed his regime.

The #DamascusDossier files include internal communications revealing the daily operations of former president Bashar Assad’s surveillance and detention network, its coordination with foreign allies and its contacts with U.N. agencies working inside Syria.

Damascus Dossier stories from around the world - ICIJ Reporters from 26 newsrooms across 20 countries uncovered new details about the Assad regime’s crimes — and how authorities are still seeking justice.

For ICIJ's #DamascusDossier investigation, reporters from 26 newsrooms across 20 countries uncovered new details about the Assad regime’s crimes — and how authorities are still seeking justice.

Learn about our partners' reporting:

Inside the Damascus Dossier: From leaked images to verified data - ICIJ ICIJ and its partners organized and analyzed thousands of chilling photographs to assemble comprehensive victim lists and quantify the human toll behind a sensitive data leak.

As part of the #DamascusDossier investigation, members of the ICIJ technology and data teams received a dataset including tens of thousands of photos.

Read how the journalists analyzed the photos and assessed how many people had been photographed:

Assad’s doctors: torturers-in-chief and the cogs in his killing machine Since the dictator’s fall, horrifying new details have emerged of the brutal murders of detainees whose cause of death were ‘laundered’ with the stroke of a pen

From @thetimes.com: Since the fall of the regime of former Syrian president Bashar Assad, horrifying new details have emerged of the brutal murders of detainees whose cause of death were "laundered" with the stroke of a pen. #DamascusDossier

Damascus Dossier stories from around the world - ICIJ Reporters from 26 newsrooms across 20 countries uncovered new details about the Assad regime’s crimes — and how authorities are still seeking justice.

One year after the fall of the Assad government in Syria, the #DamascusDossier investigation brought together over 100 reporters to uncover new evidence of the regime’s abuses and reveal efforts to pursue accountability.

Here is a selection of their stories:

About the Damascus Dossier investigation - ICIJ An exposé into Assad’s vast system for the detention, torture and murder of Syrian citizens — and the international forces that financed his regime.

The #DamascusDossier provides new evidence of how former Syrian president Bashar Assad’s security institutions operated as a unified killing machine — and how international indifference, flawed aid systems and money flows helped sustain it.

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About the Damascus Dossier investigation - ICIJ An exposé into Assad’s vast system for the detention, torture and murder of Syrian citizens — and the international forces that financed his regime.

The leak for ICIJ's #DamascusDossier investigation consists of 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.

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Syria’s disappeared: Leak of Assad torture photographs reveals fate of thousands In the News podcast: Documents released by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists

From @irishtimes.com: Over 33,000 photos of detainees, mostly believed to have been taken in 2015-2024, show the extent of the degradation and torture inflicted on them by Assad’s regime.

Listen to this podcast featuring the #DamascusDossier investigation:

Thanks to our partners for collaborating on The #DamascusDossier:

@arijnetwork.bsky.social, @cbcradiocanada.bsky.social, @tijd.be, @elpais.com, @irishtimes.com, @knack.be, @lemonde.fr, @lesoir.be, @recherche.ndr.de, @pointerkro-ncrv.bsky.social …

Inside the Damascus Dossier: From leaked images to verified data - ICIJ ICIJ and its partners organized and analyzed thousands of chilling photographs to assemble comprehensive victim lists and quantify the human toll behind a sensitive data leak.

ICIJ and its #DamascusDossier partners organized and analyzed thousands of chilling photographs to assemble comprehensive victim lists and quantify the human toll behind a sensitive data leak.

Learn about the data team's process:

Your phone was the target. 📱🎯 We expose the #DamascusDossier: how telecom giant #MTN allegedly built a surveillance network for the #Syrian regime. From "Lawful Intercept" to tracking dissidents for airstrikes, is corporate compliance a war crime?

🎧 LISTEN NOW 👇
open.spotify.com/episode/1X8O...

Frequently asked questions about the Damascus Dossier investigation - ICIJ Is the Damascus Dossier based on leaked documents? What are ICIJ’s most significant findings? These questions and more, answered.

Learn more about the #DamascusDossier investigation and answer questions such as: Is the Damascus Dossier based on leaked documents? What are ICIJ’s most significant findings? What data was used in this investigation