| When the revolution against President Bashar Assad erupted in 2011, Thaer and Imad al-Najjar supported peaceful protests calling for the end of his regime.
After Assad's security forces fired on protesters in the Syrian capital, Thaer joined the nascent armed rebellion. Imad was unable to fight, but that made no difference: both brothers became wanted men.
They took refuge at their parents' house in central Damascus, but Thaer quickly left, concerned that security officers would track him down. Two days later, officers smashed through the family's front door and hauled Imad away to prison.
Thaer, now 57, searched for his brother for 13 years. When the Assad regime collapsed in December 2024, he was one of thousands of Syrians who flocked to prisons, hospitals and mass grave sites, looking for clues about their loved ones' fates.
"Before the fall of the regime, we lived hoping that he was still alive," Thaer told the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. Imad's death certificate, found among more than 134,000 leaked Syrian intelligence records, confirmed the worst. | 
