Prosecution of Syrian civil war criminals

Last updated

Human toll of the Syrian civil war
Pre-war population 22 ±.5; Internally displaced 6 ±.5, Refugees 5.5 ±.5, Fatalities 0.5 ±.1 (millions)[ citation needed ]
Syrian refugees
By country Turkey, Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan
Settlements Camps: Jordan
Internally displaced Syrians
Casualties of the war
Crimes War crimes, massacres, rape
Return of refugees, Refugees as weapons, Prosecution of war criminals

International and national courts outside Syria have begun the prosecution of Syrian civil war criminals. War crimes perpetrated by the Syrian government or rebel groups include extermination, murder, rape or other forms of sexual violence, torture and imprisonment. [recorded 1] "[A]ccountability for serious violations of international humanitarian law and human rights is central to achieving and maintaining durable peace in Syria", stated UN Under-Secretary-General Rosemary DiCarlo. [2]

Contents

The first war crimes trial related to the Syrian civil war concluded on 12 July 2016 in Germany. It was the case of Aria L. [a] performed under the Völkerstrafgesetzbuch (Code of Crimes against International Law (CCAIL)). [3] As of December 2024, the evidence collection and cooperation with prosecutors by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic (COI) had led to 50 convictions for war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Syrian civil war. [4]

Background

According to three international lawyers, [5] Syrian government officials were expected to risk facing war crimes charges in the light of a huge cache of evidence smuggled out of the country showing the "systematic killing" of about 11,000 detainees, constituting the 2014 Syrian detainee report. Most of the victims were young men and many corpses were emaciated, bloodstained and bore signs of torture. Some had no eyes; others showed signs of strangulation or electrocution. [6] Experts said this evidence was more detailed and on a far larger scale than anything else that had emerged from the then 34-month crisis. [7]

The United Nations (UN) summarised the human rights situation by stating that "siege warfare is employed in a context of egregious human rights and international humanitarian law violations. The warring parties do not fear being held accountable for their acts." Armed forces of both sides of the conflict blocked access of humanitarian convoys, confiscated food, cut off water supplies and targeted farmers working their fields. The report pointed to four places besieged by the government forces: Muadamiyah, Daraya, Yarmouk camp and Old City of Homs, as well as two areas under siege of rebel groups: Aleppo and Hama. [8] [9] In Yarmouk Camp 20,000 residents are facing death by starvation due to blockade by the Syrian government forces and fighting between the army and Jabhat al-Nusra, which prevents food distribution by UNRWA. [8] [10] In July 2015, the UN quietly removed Yarmouk from its list of besieged areas in Syria, despite not having been able deliver aid there for four months, and declined to explain why it had done so. [11]

Forces of the Islamic State (IS) militant group have been accused by the UN of using public executions, amputations, and lashings in a campaign to instill fear. "Forces of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham have committed torture, murder, acts tantamount to enforced disappearance and forced displacement as part of attacks on the civilian population in Aleppo and Raqqa governorates, amounting to crimes against humanity", said the report from 27 August 2014. [12]

Enforced disappearances and arbitrary detentions have also been a feature since the Syrian uprising began. [13] An Amnesty International report, published in November 2015, accused the Syrian government of forcibly disappearing more than 65,000 people since the beginning of the Syrian Civil War. [14] According to a report in May 2016 by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, at least 60,000 people have been killed since March 2011 through torture or from poor humanitarian conditions in Syrian government prisons. [15]

In February 2017, Amnesty International published a report which accused the Syrian government of murdering an estimated 13,000 persons, mostly civilians, at the Saydnaya military prison. They said the killings began in 2011 and were still ongoing. Amnesty International described this as a "policy of deliberate extermination" and also stated that "These practices, which amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, are authorised at the highest levels of the Syrian government." [16] Three months later, the United States State Department stated a crematorium had been identified near the prison. According to the U.S., it was being used to burn thousands of bodies of those killed by the government's forces and to cover up evidence of atrocities and war crimes. [17] Amnesty International expressed surprise at the claims about the crematorium, as the photographs used by the US are from 2013 and they did not see them as conclusive, and fugitive government officials have stated that the government buries those its executes in cemeteries on military grounds in Damascus. [18] The Syrian government denied the allegations.

Perpetrators

Four key security agencies have overseen government repression in Syria: the General Security Directorate, the Political Security Branch, the Military Intelligence Branch, and the Air Force Intelligence Branch. All three corps of the Syrian army have been deployed in a supporting role to the security forces; the civilian police have been involved in crowd control. The shabiha, led by the security forces, also participated in abuses. [19] : 8–10  Since Hafez al-Assad's rule, individuals from the Alawite minority have controlled (although they not always formally headed) these four agencies, as well as several elite military units, [20] : 72–3  and comprise the bulk of them. [21]

Four of the international instruments ratified by Syria and which apply to events in the civil war are particularly relevant: the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR); the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; the Convention on the Rights of the Child; and the UN Convention Against Torture. Syria is not a party to the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, although it is bound by the provisions of the ICCPR that also prohibit enforced disappearances. [19] : 5 

International and National courts (International and Universal jurisdiction)

All governments manage their territories with national laws. Prosecution for war crimes under the national laws of a given country [Germany, Netherlands ...] would typically depend on either the accused, the victim's residence or the occurrence of the event being in that country. Universal jurisdiction bypasses this constraint. In this mechanism, the "cases" that have no connection to the territory [e.g. crimes in high seas] have been used by prosecutors and have been criticized by human rights organisations as leading to a de facto presence requirement [e.g. existence of a crime can not be solved through collecting unbiased evidence from the crime scene, as the court don't have untethered access].

There are many perpetrators residing in Syria [the occurrence, the accused (is a Syrian national), the victim (is a Syrian national)]. International crimes are typically state crimes. [b] [22] If [since] a state is connected to a crime (directly or indirectly), most of the powerful perpetrators (state officials) reside in Syria. In such situations, the International Court of Justice is the judicial organ to settle international legal disputes submitted by states (UN) against other states.

International courts

Richard Haass has argued that one way to encourage top-level defections is to "threaten war-crimes indictments by a certain date, say, August 15, for any senior official who remains a part of the government and is associated with its campaign against the Syrian people. Naming these individuals would concentrate minds in Damascus." [23]

Nevertheless, it remains unlikely in the short term, and some would argue this is a blessing in disguise, since this precludes the ICC's involvement while the conflict is still raging, a development that would arguably only increase the Assad government's violent obstinacy. The "United States cannot halt or reverse the militarization of the Syrian uprising, and should not try. What the United States can usefully do is manage this militarization by working with other governments, especially Syria's neighbors in the region, to try to shape the activities of armed elements on the ground in a manner that will most effectively increase pressure on the regime". [24]

On 22 December 2016, with 105 votes in favour and 15 against, with 52 abstentions, the United Nations General Assembly has voted to establish an "independent panel to assist in the investigation and prosecution of those responsible for war crimes or crimes against humanity in Syria". [25]

Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria

The U.N. General Assembly created a new entity, the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism, to build investigative files for future prosecutions, Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria (COI). [26]

On Wednesday, 7 August 2019, the UN Security Council was briefed by the COI on its findings. [2]

As of December 2024, the COI had collected 11,000 testimonies from victims and witnesses, had studied "mounds of documents", and had cooperated with 170 investigations of suspected Syrian war criminals, among which there had been 50 convictions for war crimes and crimes against humanity. [4]

International Criminal Court

The U.N. Security Council refused to address the crimes in Syria through the ICC.[ when? ][ citation needed ]

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay and others called for Syria to be referred to the International Criminal Court.[ when? ] It would be difficult for this to take place because Syria is not a party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, so the ICC does not have jurisdiction that follows from the location of the crimes.[ citation needed ]

Referral could alternatively happen via the Security Council, but in 2012, Russia and China were expected to block any referral. [27] Marc Lynch, who is in favour of a referral, stated that some other routes to an ICC investigation, including overcoming Chinese and Russian opposition in the Security Council, were possible. [28]

On 17 January 2025, following the fall of the Assad regime, ICC chief prosecutor Karim Ahmad Khan visited Damascus on an invitation from the Syrian transitional government. Khan discussed cooperation on accountability for war crimes with Ahmed al-Sharaa, the de facto leader of Syria. [29]

Special Tasked Court

Outside of the ICC, "some believe it would be possible to set up an ad hoc tribunal with a mandate to prosecute atrocities in Syria and Iraq. Such a tribunal would likely come in the form of a hybrid court and include a mix of domestic and international prosecutors and judges. Numerous observers, primarily American scholars and lawmakers, have pushed the establishment of such an institution, going so far as to draft a 'blueprint' for institution's statute. As with an ICC referral, their efforts have been unsuccessful to date." [30] Mark Kersten of the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto, however, notes that it would be an "unprecedented challenge" to "prosecute all sides in the war that have committed war crimes" while at the same time retaining "the support of the major actors in the Syrian civil war, many of whom are implicated and would be prosecuted, for those war crimes." [30]

International Court of Justice (ICJ)

In 2023, Canada and Netherlands jointly filed a lawsuit against the Assad government at the International Court of Justice (ICJ); charging Bashar with ordering torture, mass rapes and other de-humanising tactics on hundreds of thousands of detainees in Syrian prison networks, including women and children. The joint petition accused the Syrian government of organizing "unimaginable physical and mental pain and suffering" as a strategy to collectively punish the Syrian population. [31] [32] [33] In a separate statement, Dutch Foreign Ministry accused Bashar al-Assad of perpetrating indiscriminate violence, war crimes and inhumane tactics against the Syrian people "on a grand scale". [34] This was after repeated Russian vetoes in the UN Security Council that blocked efforts by human rights activists to prosecute Bashar al-Assad over war crimes in the International Criminal Court. [35]

National courts

The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) is using both its own employees and other volunteers (Syrian lawyers working in EU member states) to gather evidence and establish cases. [36]

Belgium

In January 2024, a Brussels court indicted Hossin A, former leader of a Ba'athist militia based in Salamiyah that perpetrated acts of torture, extrajudicial killings of numerous Syrians, and violent repression of protests on behalf of the government of Syria. The Belgian federal prosecutor's office charged the individual with committing war crimes and "crimes against humanity" between 2011 and 2016. [37] [38]

France

In November 2018, France issued international arrest warrants for three high-ranking Ba'athist security officers over torturing and killing French-Syrian citizens. The accused officers included Ali Mamlouk, director of National Security Bureau of Syrian Ba'ath party and Jamil Hassan, former head of the Syrian Air Force Intelligence Directorate. [39] In April 2023, a French court declared the establishment of a tribunal to indict the officers of the Assad government charged with "complicity in crimes against humanity", torture and various war-crimes. [40] [41] International Federation for Human Rights NGO described the indictments as "a historic decision". [42] [43] In May 2023, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna publicly demanded the prosecution of Bashar al-Assad, denouncing him for perpetrating chemical warfare and killing hundreds of thousands of civilians, and stated: [44]

"the battle against crime, against impunity is part of French diplomacy. We have to remember who Bashar al-Assad is. He's a leader who has been the enemy of his own people for more than 10 years.. So long as he doesn't change, so long as he doesn't commit to reconciliation... so long as he doesn't fulfil his commitments, there's no reason to change our attitude towards him." [45]

In November 2023, France issued international arrest warrants for Bashar al-Assad, his brother Maher and two Syrian Arab Armed Forces generals Ghassam Abbas and Bassam al-Hassan, charging them with "complicity in crimes against humanity and complicity in war crimes" over their roles in perpetrating the Ghouta chemical attacks. [46] [47] The arrest warrant for Bashar al-Assad was appealed by prosecutors from an anti-terrorist legal unit. The appeal was rejected and the warrant was confirmed on 26 June 2024. [48] On 20 January 2025 a second arrest warrant was issued for Assad accusing him of ordering a bombing in Deraa in 2017 that killed a French civilian. [49] [50]

In May 2024, France conducted a trial in absentia for three Syrian Ba'athist officials accused of war crimes: Jamil Hassan, Ali Mamlouk, and Abdel Salam Mahmoud. [51] The French court declared the three officials to be guilty of "crimes against humanity and war crimes" and sentenced them to life imprisonment. The judges of the French tribunal stated that two Franco-Syrian citizens were tortured to death alongside thousands of civilians held as captives in the detention centres of the Syrian Air Force Intelligence Directorate. [52] [53]

As of January 2025, French authorities had issued arrest warrants for fourteen members of the Assad regime in total. [50]

Germany

Germany has legally enacted universal jurisdiction (used on pirates and slave traders) to allow prosecutions for war crimes committed anywhere, against any people of any citizenship. German authorities started conduct a background inquiry to gather information in 2011. The aim (Strukturverfahren) was to establish war crimes cases, whether in Germany or in courts elsewhere (such as the International Criminal Court). [36] The investigative/protective units are organised under the federal prosecutor's office with 11 staff members, and 17 war-crimes police officers. [36] The police war-crimes unit established a total of 17 cases from 2011 to 2013 and 2,590 from 2014 to 2016. [36]

Under the Völkerstrafgesetzbuch (Code of Crimes against International Law (CCAIL)), the first German war crimes trial related to atrocities committed in the Syrian Civil War was the case of Aria L., a German who had been involved in Islamist and Salafist groups in Germany since 2013 and had travelled to Idlib in Syria in 2014. Aria L. was photographed in three separate photos in front of severed heads of Syrian army members mounted on metal spears. He was convicted of the war crime of treating protected persons in a gravely humiliating or degrading manner and sentence to two years' imprisonment on 12 July 2016. [3]

German prosecutors charged two Syrians, Kamel T. and Azad R. in 2016 [54] and Basel A. and Majed A. in 2018, [55] for joining Salafist militant group such as Ahrar al-Sham and Jabhat al-Nusra.

On 23 August 2019, a 33-year-old Syrian (name undisclosed) was charged in the western Germany city of Koblenz with committing war crimes. [56]

In late October 2019, two Syrians suspected of having been secret service officers, Anwar Raslan and Eyad al-Gharib, were arrested in Germany and charged with crimes against humanity. Anwar Raslan was charged with 59 counts of murder, and rape and sexual assault. Eyad al-Gharib was charged with aiding and abetting a crime against humanity. Part of the evidence was based on the photographs of the 2014 Syrian detainee report, taken by a former Syrian military police photographer, nicknamed Caesar for security reasons. [57] [58]

In May 2020, a Syrian doctor, Hafiz A., from Homs was accused of beating and torturing rebel men by the federal prosecutor's office in Karlsruhe. [59] In June 2020, another Syrian doctor from Homs, Alaa Moussa, was arrested in Hesse on suspicion of crimes against humanity. [60] [61]

In September 2020, during the trial of Anwar Raslan and Eyad al-Gharib in Koblenz, some documents were acquired from the Branch 251 intelligence unit in Syria, which showed the move of corpses from the unit to military hospitals. [62]

On November 19, 2020, Fares A.B. was convicted of "war crimes, attempted homicide, torture, and membership of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)". Germany’s Federal Court of Justice later upheld his conviction. [63]

In January 2021, two Syrians, Khedr A.K. and Sami A.S., were charged with membership in Jabhat al-Nusra and killing of an army officer in their homeland in 2012. [64] In February 2021, former Syrian state official Eyad al-Gharib, was sentenced by a German court in Koblenz to four-and-a-half-years in prison for crimes against humanity. [65] In January 2022, the German state court in Koblenz declared Anwar Raslan, a former colonel who worked under the Syrian Mukhabarat's infamous Branch 251 unit, guilty of "murder, torture, aggravated deprivation of liberty, rape and sexual assault", sentencing him to "life imprisonment". Raslan was the chief of an office of Branch 251 in Damascus, wherein he directed the “systematic and brutal torture” of more than 4,000 Syrians between April 2011 and September 2012, leading to the killings of more than 58 prisoners. Prosecutors stated that the torture operations supervised by Raslan included electric shocks and various forms of sexual violence. [66] [67]

Ahmad H., the alleged former leader of a Shabiha militia, was arrested in Germany in August 2023. [68] The suspect was charged with crimes against humanity for having taken part in the torture and abuse of civilians on multiple occasions between 2012 and 2015. [69] On 18 December 2024 he was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment. [70]

Netherlands

Netherlands is using concept of universal jurisdiction (Dutch version) laws to prosecute their cases.

On 2 September 2019, Ahmad al Khedr, also known as Abu Khuder, faced charges of murder and membership of Jabhat al-Nusra. [71] In July 2021, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison for war crimes over his role in the execution of a government soldier. [72]

In January 2024, a district court in The Hague convicted a former member of the pro-Ba'athist "Liwa al-Quds" militia, who was charged with conducting abductions, "complicity in torture", "inhumane treatment" and "membership in a criminal organisation". The Hague district court labelled the "Liwa al-Quds" militant group as a "criminal organization" and stated that its fighters were involved in the perpetration of "looting and violence against civilians and unlawful deprivation of liberty of civilians". [73] [74]

Sweden

In 2017, a Swedish court convicted former Syrian soldier Muhammad Abdullah of war crimes committed during the Syrian war and sentenced him to eight months in prison. [75] Abdullah had reportedly moved to Sweden three years previously, and was identified by other Syrian refugees after posting an image on Facebook showing him with his boot on a corpse, smiling. Prosecutors failed to prove that he killed the person depicted, but convicted him of "violating human dignity" in what the New York Times described as a "landmark verdict". [76]

On 19 February 2019, nine torture survivors submitted a criminal complaint against Syrian officials. [77]

In 2024, former Syrian general Mohammed Hamo was charged with aiding and abetting war crimes. His trial began in Stockholm on April 15. [78] He was acquitted, citing insufficient evidence.

United States

On 6 December 2024 a federal court issued arrest warrants for Jamil Hassan and Abdul Mahmoud on charges of conspiracy to commit war crimes against US citizens held at Mezzeh prison. [79]

Notes

  1. ↑ A German national, who has been a committed member of the Islamist and Salafist groups, murdered members of Syrian military personnel and in two of these cases produced his own picture with severed heads
  2. ↑ Indirectly: enabled by (state apparatus ignoring the perpetrator) or directly: perpetrated through the apparatus (black operations).

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Criminal Court</span> Intergovernmental organization and international tribunal

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is an intergovernmental organization and international tribunal seated in The Hague, Netherlands. It is the first and only permanent international court with jurisdiction to prosecute individuals for the international crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression. The ICC is distinct from the International Court of Justice, an organ of the United Nations that hears disputes between states. Established in 2002 pursuant to the multilateral Rome Statute, the ICC is considered by its proponents to be a major step toward justice, and an innovation in international law and human rights.

Universal jurisdiction is a legal principle that allows states or international organizations to prosecute individuals for serious crimes, such as genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, regardless of where the crime was committed and irrespective of the accused's nationality or residence. Rooted in the belief that certain offenses are universally morally reprehensible and that they threaten the international community as a whole, universal jurisdiction holds that such acts are beyond the scope of any single nation's laws. Instead, these crimes are considered to violate norms owed to the global community and fundamental principles of international law, making them prosecutable in any court that invokes this principle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Criminal Court investigations</span> Investigations by the International Criminal Court

The International Criminal Court has opened investigations in Afghanistan, Bangladesh/Myanmar, Burundi, the Central African Republic (twice), Côte d'Ivoire, Darfur in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Georgia, Kenya, Libya, Mali, Palestine, the Philippines, Uganda, Ukraine, and Venezuela I. The Office of the Prosecutor carried out and closed preliminary investigations in Bolivia; Colombia; Congo II; Gabon; Guinea; Honduras; Iraq/the United Kingdom; registered vessels of Comoros, Greece, and Cambodia; and South Korea. Ongoing preliminary examinations are being carried out in situations in Lithuania/Belarus, Nigeria, and Venezuela II.

Ahmed Mohammed Haroun is one of five Sudanese men wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. Despite international pressure on the government of Sudan to surrender him to the ICC, Haroun served as Sudan's Minister of State for Humanitarian Affairs until May 2009, when he was appointed to the governorship of South Kordofan. In September 2007, he was appointed to lead an investigation into human rights violations in Darfur. In July 2013 he resigned as Governor of South Kordofan, and was reappointed by Omar al-Bashir as Governor of North Kordofan. On 1 March 2019, President Omar al-Bashir handed over the running of the country's leading political party, the National Congress, to him. He was arrested in April 2019 by local authorities in Sudan following a coup which overthrew al-Bashir.

The Völkerstrafgesetzbuch, abbreviated VStGB, is a German law that regulates crimes against (public) international law. It allows cases to be brought against suspects under international criminal law provisions, meaning that suspects can be prosecuted even though both they and their victims are foreigners and the crime itself took place abroad.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karim Ahmad Khan</span> British lawyer (born 1970)

Karim Asad Ahmad Khan is a British lawyer specialising in international criminal law and international human rights law, who has served as Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court since 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Luis Moreno Ocampo</span> Argentine lawyer and first prosecutor of the ICC

Luis Moreno Ocampo is an Argentine lawyer who served as the first prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) from 2003 to 2012. Previously, he had played a major role in Argentina's democratic transition (1983–1991).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">War crimes in the Syrian civil war</span>

War crimes in the Syrian civil war have been numerous and serious. A United Nations report published in August 2014 stated that "the conduct of the warring parties in the Syrian Arab Republic has caused civilians immeasurable suffering". Another UN report released in 2015 stated that the war has been "characterized by a complete lack of adherence to the norms of international law" and that "civilians have borne the brunt of the suffering inflicted by the warring parties". Various countries have prosecuted several war criminals for a limited number of atrocities committed during the Syrian civil war.

Ali Mamlouk is a Syrian intelligence officer and special security and military advisor to President Bashar al-Assad. He is reportedly one of Assad's most trusted associates. From 2012 to 2019, Mamlouk served as the head of the National Security Bureau of the Ba'ath Party. On 9 July 2019, Mamlouk was appointed as the Syrian Deputy Vice President for Security Affairs.

Jamil Hassan was the head of the Syrian Air Force Intelligence Directorate and a former close adviser to President Bashar al-Assad.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Criminal Court investigation in Mali</span>

The International Criminal Court investigation in Mali or the Situation in the Republic of Mali is an ongoing investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC) into war crimes and other crimes within the ICC's jurisdiction that are alleged to have occurred during the Northern Mali conflict since January 2012. The investigation was requested by the government of Mali in July 2012. As the first person who pleaded guilty to a charge of the ICC, Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi made a statement expressing remorse and advising others not to commit similar acts.

The 2014 Syrian detainee report, also known as the Caesar Report, formally titled A Report into the credibility of certain evidence with regard to Torture and Execution of Persons Incarcerated by the current Syrian regime, is a report that claims to detail "the systematic killing of more than 11,000 detainees by the Syrian government in one region during the Syrian Civil War over a two and half year period from March 2011 to August 2013". It was released on 21 January 2014, a day before talks were due to begin at the Geneva II Conference on Syria, and was commissioned by the government of Qatar. Qatar has been a key funder of the rebels in Syria. The Syrian government questioned the report due to its ties to hostile sides against the Syrian government and pointed to how many of the photos were identified as casualties among international terrorists fighting the Syrian government or Syrian army troops or civilians massacred by them due to supporting the Syrian government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Criminal Court investigation in Libya</span> Investigation started in March 2011

The International Criminal Court investigation in Libya or the Situation in Libya is an investigation started in March 2011 by the International Criminal Court (ICC) into war crimes and crimes against humanity claimed to have occurred in Libya since 15 February 2011. The initial context of the investigation was the 2011 Libyan Civil War and the time frame of the investigation continued to include the 2019 Western Libya offensive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Criminal Court investigation in Palestine</span> International legal proceedings

The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Fatou Bensouda, on 20 December 2019 announced an investigation into war crimes allegedly committed in Palestine by members of the Israeli military and Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups since 13 June 2014.

Anwar Raslan is a Syrian former colonel who led a unit within Syria's General Intelligence Directorate. In January 2022, a German Higher Regional Court convicted him of crimes against humanity under universal jurisdiction. The specific charges against him were 4,000 counts of torture, 58 counts of murder, rape, and sexual coercion. His trial marked the first international war crimes case against a member of the Syrian government during the presidency of Bashar al-Assad.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Germany–Syria relations</span> Bilateral relations

Germany–Syria relations are the bilateral relations between the Federal Republic of Germany and the Syrian Arab Republic. Germany closed its Damascus embassy and stopped its recognition of Bashar Al-Assad in 2012 because of the Syrian civil war, but did not cut relations with the former Ba'athist regime until its official collapse in late 2024.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Criminal Court investigation in Ukraine</span> Ongoing investigation opened in 2022

The International Criminal Court investigation in Ukraine or the Situation in Ukraine is an ongoing investigation by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) into "any past and present allegations of war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide committed on any part of the territory of Ukraine by any person" during the period starting "from 21 November 2013 onwards", on an "open-ended basis", covering the Revolution of Dignity, the Russo-Ukrainian War including the 2014 annexation of Crimea by Russia, the war in Donbas and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The ICC prosecutor commenced these investigations on 2 March 2022, after receiving referrals for the situation in Ukraine from 39 ICC State Parties. On 1 January 2025, Ukraine became the 125th member of the International Criminal Court.

Al-Khatib prison is a detention and torture center in the Muhajreen neighborhood of central Damascus, Syria. It was operated by Branch 251 of the Syrian General Intelligence Directorate during the era of Ba'athist Syria.

Human rights in Ba'athist Syria were effectively non-existent. The government's human rights record was considered one of the worst in the world. As a result, Ba'athist Syria was globally condemned by prominent international organizations, including the United Nations, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the European Union. Civil liberties, political rights, freedom of speech and assembly were severely restricted under the neo-Ba'athist government of Bashar al-Assad, which was regarded as "one of the world's most repressive regimes". The 50th edition of Freedom in the World, the annual report published by Freedom House since 1973, designated Syria as "Worst of the Worst" among the "Not Free" countries. The report listed Syria as one of the two countries to get the lowest possible score (1/100).

References

Notes

  1. ↑ reports include: [1]

Citations

  1. ↑ "UN must refer Syria war crimes to ICC: Amnesty". GlobalPost. Archived from the original on 16 August 2013. Retrieved 20 March 2014.
  2. 1 2 Staff (14 August 2019). "Atrocity Alert No. 167: Syria, Afghanistan and the Geneva Conventions - Syrian Arab Republic". ReliefWeb. Archived from the original on 6 September 2019. Retrieved 6 September 2019.
  3. 1 2 Kroker, Patrick (12 August 2016). "Justice for Syria? Opportunities and Limitations of Universal Jurisdiction Trials in Germany". European Journal of International Law. Archived from the original on 30 October 2019.
  4. 1 2 Nina Larson (12 December 2024). "UN investigators say 4,000 Syrian rights abusers identified". Al-Monitor . Wikidata   Q131433138. Archived from the original on 12 December 2024.
  5. ↑ Sir Desmond de Silva QC, former chief prosecutor of the special court for Sierra Leone, Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, the former lead prosecutor of former Yugoslavian president Slobodan Milošević, and Professor David Crane, who indicted President Charles Taylor of Liberia at the Sierra Leone court
  6. ↑ "foreignaffairs.house.gov". Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 2 October 2014.
  7. ↑ "EXCLUSIVE: Gruesome Syria photos may prove torture by Assad regime". CNN. 21 January 2014. Archived from the original on 22 January 2014. Retrieved 21 January 2014.
  8. 1 2 "Report of the independent international commission of inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic". 12 February 2014. Archived from the original on 21 May 2014. Retrieved 7 March 2014.
  9. ↑ "UN decries use of sieges, starvation in Syrian military strategy | The New Age Online". The New Age. South Africa. 5 March 2014. Archived from the original on 13 July 2015. Retrieved 20 March 2014.
  10. ↑ "Yarmouk update: Nusra's apparent return complicates UNRWA's hopes for food program". 3 March 2014. Archived from the original on 6 March 2014. Retrieved 6 March 2014.
  11. ↑ Dyke, Joe (24 July 2015). "Yarmouk camp no longer besieged, UN rules". IRIN. Archived from the original on 27 July 2015. Retrieved 28 July 2015.
  12. ↑ "Syria and Isis committing war crimes, says UN". The Guardian. 27 August 2014. Archived from the original on 28 August 2014. Retrieved 29 August 2014.
  13. ↑ "syrias disappeared". BBC News. 11 November 2014. Archived from the original on 11 November 2014. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
  14. ↑ Loveluck, Louisa (5 November 2015). "Amnesty accuses Syrian regime of 'disappearing' tens of thousands". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 27 April 2016. Retrieved 30 June 2016.
  15. ↑ Monitor: 60,000 dead in Syria government jails Archived 22 May 2016 at the Wayback Machine Al Jazeera
  16. ↑ "Syria: 13,000 secretly hanged in Saydnaya military prison – shocking new report". Amnesty International. Archived from the original on 22 February 2017. Retrieved 21 February 2017.
  17. ↑ "US accuses Syria of killing thousands of prisoners and burning the dead bodies in large crematorium outside Damascus". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 19 December 2018. Retrieved 15 May 2017.
    Harris, Gardiner (15 May 2017). "Syria Prison Crematory Is Hiding Mass Executions, U.S. Says". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331. Archived from the original on 15 May 2017. Retrieved 15 May 2017.
  18. ↑ Harris, Gardiner; Barnard, Anne; Gladstone, Rick (15 May 2017). "Syrian Crematory Is Hiding Mass Killings of Prisoners, U.S. Says". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 15 May 2017. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
  19. 1 2 Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for maggagistic Human Rights on the situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic (PDF). UN Human Rights Council. 15 September 2011. Archived (PDF) from the original on 16 May 2012. Retrieved 30 June 2012.
  20. ↑ Byman, Daniel L. (2005). "The Implications of Leadership Change in the Arab World". Political Science Quarterly . 120 (1): 59–83. doi:10.1002/j.1538-165x.2005.tb00538.x. JSTOR   20202473.
  21. ↑ Goldsmith, Leon (16 April 2012). "Alawites for Assad". ForeignAffairs.com. Archived from the original on 22 April 2012. Retrieved 7 July 2012.
  22. ↑ staff (8 June 2016). Universal Jurisdiction in Germany? The Congo War Crimes Trial: First Case under the Code of Crimes against International Law (PDF). Berlin: The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights. p. 28.
  23. ↑ Haass, Richard N. (16 July 2012). "Into Syria without Arms". Project Syndicate. Archived from the original on 20 July 2012. Retrieved 18 July 2012.
  24. ↑ Cofman Wittes, Tamara (19 April 2012). "Options for U.S. Policy in Syria". Testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Brookings Institution. Archived from the original on 19 June 2013. Retrieved 6 July 2012.
  25. ↑ "Syria: UN approves mechanism to lay groundwork for investigations into possible war crimes". UN News Centre. 22 December 2016. Archived from the original on 23 December 2016. Retrieved 23 December 2016.
  26. ↑ Goldston, James A. (8 August 2019). "Don't Give Up on the ICC". Foreign Policy. Archived from the original on 5 September 2019. Retrieved 6 September 2019.
  27. ↑ Peel, Michael; Steinglass, Matt (2 March 2012). "ICC powerless to investigate Syrian regime". FT.com. Archived from the original on 11 July 2012. Retrieved 7 July 2012.
  28. ↑ Lynch, Marc (4 March 2012). "Can the ICC take on Syria?". Abu Aardvark's Middle East Blog. FP.com. Archived from the original on 8 December 2014. Retrieved 6 July 2012.
  29. ↑ "ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan meets Syria's new leader". Al-Monitor . 17 January 2025. Wikidata   Q131820620. Archived from the original on 18 January 2025.
  30. 1 2 Mark Kersten, Calls for prosecuting war crimes in Syria are growing. Is international justice possible? Archived 20 October 2017 at the Wayback Machine , Washington Post (14 October 2016).
  31. ↑ "Joint statement by Canada and the Kingdom of the Netherlands on instituting proceedings at the International Court of Justice to hold Syria to account for torture". Government of Netherlands. 12 June 2023. Archived from the original on 13 June 2023.
  32. ↑ "Canada and the Kingdom of the Netherlands jointly institute proceedings against the Syrian Arab Republic and request the Court to indicate provisional measures" (PDF). International Court of Justice.org. 12 June 2023. pp. 1, 2. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 June 2023.
  33. ↑ "Canada and the Kingdom of Netherlands vs. the Syrian Arab Republic" (PDF). International Court of Justice.org. 8 June 2023. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 June 2023.
  34. ↑ van den Berg, Stephanie (12 June 2023). "Netherlands, Canada take Syria to World Court over torture claims". Reuters. Archived from the original on 13 June 2023.
  35. ↑ "Canada and Netherlands take Syria to ICJ over alleged torture". The National. 12 June 2023. Archived from the original on 13 June 2023.
  36. 1 2 3 4 Schaer, Cathrin (31 July 2019). "Prosecuting Syrian War-Crimes Suspects From Berlin". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on 1 August 2019. Retrieved 6 September 2019.
  37. ↑ "Belgium Detains Syrian On Suspicion Of War Crimes". Barron's. 29 January 2024. Archived from the original on 30 January 2024.
  38. ↑ "First indictment in Belgium for war crimes under Assad's regime in Syria". vrt nws. 29 January 2024. Archived from the original on 30 January 2024.
  39. ↑ Jarry, Emmanuel (5 November 2018). "France issues arrest warrants for senior Syrian officials". Reuters. Archived from the original on 6 April 2023.
  40. ↑ "France to try senior Assad allies for crimes against humanity in Syria". France 24. 4 April 2023. Archived from the original on 5 April 2023.
  41. ↑ "France to try Syrian regime officials for crimes against humanity". Al Jazeera. 5 April 2023. Archived from the original on 15 April 2023.
  42. ↑ "France to try senior Assad allies for crimes against humanity in Syria". France 24. 4 April 2023. Archived from the original on 5 April 2023.
  43. ↑ "France to try Syrian regime officials for crimes against humanity". Al Jazeera. 5 April 2023. Archived from the original on 15 April 2023.
  44. ↑ "Syria's Assad should be put on trial, says French foreign minister". France 24. 23 May 2023. Archived from the original on 24 May 2023.
  45. ↑ "French Foreign Minister: We support the trial of Bashar al-Assad and do not change our position towards him". France 24. 23 May 2023. Archived from the original on 25 May 2023.
  46. ↑ "France issues arrest warrant for Syria's President Assad - source". Reuters. 15 November 2023. Archived from the original on 15 November 2023.
  47. ↑ "France issues arrest warrant for Syria's al-Assad". Al Jazeera. 15 November 2023. Archived from the original on 15 November 2023.
  48. ↑ "French court confirms arrest warrant against Syria's Assad". Al-Monitor . 26 June 2024. Wikidata   Q126916276. Archived from the original on 27 June 2024.
  49. ↑ Jochecova, Ketrin (22 January 2025). "France issues new arrest warrant for Assad on war crimes charges". Politico.
  50. 1 2 "French investigators issue new arrest warrant for Syria's Assad". France 24. 21 January 2025.
  51. ↑ "French court sentences 3 Syrian officials to life in prison in absentia for war crimes". The Associated Press. 25 May 2024.
  52. ↑ Wilsher, Kim (24 May 2024). "French court finds three Syrian officials guilty of crimes against humanity". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 25 May 2024.
  53. ↑ "Torture in Syria: Paris court sentences three senior officials from Assad's regime to life imprisonment". Le Monde. 25 May 2024. Archived from the original on 25 May 2024.
  54. ↑ "German prosecutors charge two Syrians for Ahrar al-Sham membership". DW (in German). 18 November 2016.
  55. ↑ "Staatsschutzverfahren wegen des Verdachts der Unterstützung einer terroristischen Vereinigung in Syrien". Justiz (in German). 19 October 2018.
  56. ↑ Staff. "Germany: Syrian man who posed with severed head charged with war crimes | DW | 23.08.2019". Deutsche Welle. No. 23 August 2019. Archived from the original on 6 September 2019. Retrieved 6 September 2019.
  57. ↑ Oltermann, Philip (29 October 2019). "Germany charges two Syrians with crimes against humanity". The Guardian . Archived from the original on 29 October 2019. Retrieved 30 October 2019.
  58. ↑ "Assad's intelligence officers tried in German court". Rozana Radio. 23 April 2020.
  59. ↑ "Generalbundesanwalt ermittelt gegen syrischen Arzt aus Hessen: "Nehmt ihn mit"". Der Spiegel (in German). 22 May 2020.
  60. ↑ "Festnahme eines mutmaßlichen Mitarbeiters des syrischen Militärischen Geheimdienstes wegen des dringenden Tatverdachts eines Verbrechens gegen die Menschlichkeit". Der Generalbundesanwalt beim Bundesgerichtshof (in German). 22 June 2020.
  61. ↑ "Germany Has Arrested Alaa Moussa Accused of Torture". reform4syria.org. 22 June 2020.
  62. ↑ "'Physical evidence' of killings presented at Syrian officials' trial in Germany". Middle East Eye. 16 September 2020.
  63. ↑ Lampropoulos, Panagiotis (1 September 2021). "Germany top court confirms conviction of Syrian for war crimes and ISIS membership". Jurist.
  64. ↑ "German Court Charges 2 Syrians With Terrorism Over Army Officer's Killing". aawsat.com. 18 January 2021.
  65. ↑ "In world first, Germany convicts Syrian regime officer of crimes against humanity". CNN. 24 February 2021.
  66. ↑ "German court sentences former Syrian colonel to life in prison". Al Jazeera. 13 January 2022. Archived from the original on 13 January 2022.
  67. ↑ Schaer, Cathrin (12 January 2022). "Syrian victims brace for verdict in landmark torture trial". Al Jazeera. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022.
  68. ↑ Ebrahimi, Soraya (3 August 2023). "German police arrest Syrian on war crimes charges". The National.
  69. ↑ "Alleged ex-member of Syrian militia arrested in Germany, accused of crimes against humanity". ABC News. 3 August 2023.
  70. ↑ "Germany Jails Syrian For 10 Years For Assad-era War Crimes". Barron's. 18 December 2024.
  71. ↑ van den Berg, Stephanie (2 September 2019). "Syrian war crimes suspect appears in Dutch court". Reuters. Archived from the original on 6 September 2019. Retrieved 6 September 2019.
  72. ↑ "Dutch court convicts Syrian of war crimes over killing of soldier". swissinfo.ch. 16 July 2021.
  73. ↑ Corder, Mike (22 January 2024). "Dutch court convicts pro-Syrian government militia member of illegally detaining, torturing civilian". The Washington Post.
  74. ↑ "Dutch court convicts Syria pro-gov't fighter on war crimes charges". Al Jazeera. 22 January 2024. Archived from the original on 22 January 2024.
  75. ↑ "Sweden jails Syrian soldier for 'war crimes'". Middle East Monitor. 5 October 2017.
  76. ↑ Barnard, Anne (3 October 2017). "Syrian Soldier Is Guilty of War Crime, a First in the 6-Year Conflict". The New York Times .
  77. ↑ Nebehay, Stephanie (8 March 2019). "U.N. investigators hot on trail of Syrian war criminals". Reuters.
  78. ↑ "Sweden launches war crimes trial against former Syrian officer". Al Jazeera. 15 April 2024.
  79. ↑ Singh, Kanishka (9 December 2024). "Two former Syrian intelligence officials face US war crimes charges". Reuters.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.