Syria crimes evidence 'indicates' Assad role - UN

December 03, 2013 - A growing body of evidence collected by United Nations investigators points to the involvement of senior Syrian officials, including President Bashar Assad, in crimes against humanity and war crimes, the U.N.'s top human rights official said Monday. Navi Pillay, who heads the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the scale and viciousness of the abuses being perpetrated by both sides almost defies belief, and is being well documented by an expert U.N. panel of investigators. “They've produced massive evidence,'' she told a news conference. “They point to the fact that the evidence indicates responsibility at the highest level of government, including the head of state.'' But Pillay said the lists of suspected criminals are handed to her on a confidential basis and will remain sealed until requested by international or national authorities for a ``credible investigation,'' and then possibly used for prosecution.
Pillay and the four-member U.N. panel on Syria war crimes chaired by Brazilian diplomat and scholar Paulo Sergio Pinheiro has previously said Assad's government and supporters and the rebels who oppose them have committed heinous war crimes during the nearly 3-year-old civil war in Syria that has killed more than 100,000 people. But this time, Pillay specifically referred to the president _ though she was careful to say she hadn't singled him out as a possible suspect on the secret lists. (Source: AP)