April 2020. Former French judge Catherine Marchi-Uhel told Reuters her office had received 15 requests from national judicial or prosecution authorities for cooperation on Syria-related cases in five countries, and amassed a million records in all. “We are progressing I have no doubt, we are going in the right direction,” said Marchi-Uhel, who heads the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism set up in 2016 to probe and help prosecute the most serious crimes committed in Syria. During the war, large numbers have died in air strikes and bombardment of city streets, the United Nations has documented repeated chemical weapons attacks on civilians, and countless have faced torture, summary execution and disappearance.
“We are already going in that direction of identifying the most serious crimes, identifying perpetrators, not just physical perpetrators but those who orchestrated, assisted or condoned the commission of crimes that are really our mandate,” Marchi-Uhel added at the interview in her Geneva office. “Does it give a prospect of justice a better chance? Yes”. In a boost to the hunt for justice, police last month detained two Syrians in Germany and one in France on suspicion of torturing opposition activists and other crimes against humanity. They were the first such arrests in Europe against suspected figures from the feared security service. Why is Justice so Slow?
Apr 2020. UN Investigation into War Crimes in Syria Part 2
