Baladi News
Lawyers representing Syrian refugees in Jordan have made a request to the International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor to open an investigation into the regime of Bashar Al-Assad, after submitting evidence of government forces carrying out crimes against humanity.
A group of lawyers, led by Rodney Dixon QC of Temple Garden Chambers in London, today said that the evidence indicts several senior figures in the Assad government, including the president himself as well as his brother Maher Al-Assad.
“Today’s action is indeed a long awaited breakthrough for the countless victims of the most brutal crimes we’ve seen in the ongoing Syrian conflict,” Dixon said at a press conference earlier today.
The case is being brought on behalf of 28 Syrians currently in refugee camps in Jordan; they testify to being shot at, detained, tortured and exiled, as well as having witnessed massacres committed by Syrian troops.
“We are asserting that based on the evidence of our clients and others, there is now a very clear jurisdictional gateway for the prosecutor to investigate this case and prosecute those who are most responsible,” Dixon told reporters.
Recorded testimonies from the refugees were also heard in London earlier today, all of whom had chosen to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals from government intelligence forces against family members still in Syria.
“I saw a lot of people being shot at by the regime forces, people were being randomly shot including my 18-year-old nephew. Two other family members of mine were kidnapped and we never heard from them again,” one woman, now in Zaatari refugee camp, narrated. “When I was living in Homs I was volunteering by providing medication and treatment to injured people. I attended to a lot of women who had been raped and abused by the regime forces. My volunteer work made me a target for the regime.”
The legal team also condemned that no such action had been taken until now, largely due to Damascus-allies Russia and China vetoing a UN Security Council resolution to refer the Syrian conflict to the court.
The war in Syria has killed more than 600,000 people since 2011, the vast majority by regime-allied forces. More than half of the country’s 21 million population has been displaced, and the Assad government, led by the Muslim Alawite minority, has faced accusations of repopulation along sectarian lines. Some 14,000 Syrians are still being held in regime prisons, whilst the fates of a further 82,000 remain unknown.
Source: The Middle East Monitor.