Prosecution of Syrian civil war criminals

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

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
SettlementsCamps: Jordan
Internally displaced Syrians
Casualties of the war
CrimesWar crimes, massacres, rape
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

Under-Secretary-General Rosemary DiCarlo.[2]

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

See also: War crimes in the Syrian civil war, List of massacres during the Syrian civil war, and Rape during the Syrian civil war

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 "

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

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

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]

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

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)

Main article: Canada and the Netherlands v. Syrian Arab Republic

In 2023,

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

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

Deraa in 2017 that killed a French civilian.[49][50]

In May 2024, France conducted a

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

See also: Völkerstrafgesetzbuch

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

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

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.

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 the concept of universal jurisdiction to prosecute their cases.

Islamic State militant Oussama Achraf Akhlafa was convicted in 2019 of terrorism and committing war crimes in both Syria and Iraq. He had posed for photos with the crucified body of an Iraqi man killed by ISIS.[71][72]

On 2 September 2019, Ahmad al Khedr, also known as Abu Khuder, faced charges of murder and membership of Jabhat al-Nusra.[73] In July 2021, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison for war crimes over his role in the execution of a government soldier.[74]

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".[75][76]

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.[77] 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".[78]

On 19 February 2019, nine torture survivors submitted a criminal complaint against Syrian officials.[79]

In 2024, former Syrian general Mohammed Hamo was charged with aiding and abetting war crimes. His trial began in Stockholm on April 15.[80] 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.[81]

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).

References

Notes

  1. ^ reports include:[1]

Citations

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