2014-01-27 15:07:21

U.N. documents new war crimes in Syria for future prosecution


Geneva, 27 January 2014: U.N. war crimes experts have documented more torture and killings by both sides in Syria and are confident they can build a case that could be taken up by the International Criminal Court, a leading member of the team said on Friday.

According to Reuter’s report, they are drawing up a fourth confidential list of suspects, either individuals or units linked to crimes committed since July, Karen Koning AbuZayd, an American expert serving on an independent commission of inquiry set up by the United Nations in 2011, said in an interview.

U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay said in December that evidence collected by the investigators implicates President Bashar al-Assad, later denying that she had direct knowledge of their secret lists.

AbuZayd said the lists went up to "higher levels" of the Syrian government, declining to be more specific in the interview in Geneva, where the first talks involving the warring parties are expected over the coming week.

Foreign fighters in Syria, mainly Islamist groups, have their "own agenda", sometimes setting up sharia courts that issue summary sentences carried out immediately, including executions, AbuZayd said.

"Civil wars can be pretty bad, but people coming in from outside with radical agendas really don't give a damn what they do to things or people in that wonderful country that Syria was."Source: Reuters








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