WARNING: This story contains images of dead bodies and graphic physical injuries.

Thaer al-Najjar and his family had searched for his brother Imad in vain for 13 years, ever since he was violently arrested in 2012 by the security forces of Syria's former Assad regime.

After the government was overthrown in December 2024 and dictator Bashar al-Assad fled , Najjar even made multiple trips with one of his sons to a notorious prison outside Damascus where the regime murdered thousands of captives. They hoped they might find some trace of Imad.

"We went to the cells inside," Najjar said. "Imad was a painter and he used to paint on walls, so we were looking at the walls, hoping that we could find any of his paintings."

After all that time and all that searching, Najjar, a 57-year-old bla

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