Marwa Welcomes Referring Assad Regime’s Crimes to the ICC

Hisham Marwa, member of the legal committee, said that “the UN Security Council meeting scheduled for tomorrow to discuss a draft French resolution to hold the Assad regime accountable is a positive step. “The international community should have taken this step earlier, especially in light of the Assad regime’s continued crimes and the use of chemical weapons in addition Assad’s intention to run for re-election.  In case positive result was not reached in the UN Security Council meeting tomorrow, we hope that the UN General Assembly refer the Assad regime to the International Criminal Court (ICC), as this will represent a defeat of the Assad regime and a step toward overthrowing it. The UN Security Council meeting, proposed by France, will discuss reports of torture and executions in the prisons of the Assad regime, particularly the leaked photos by Cesar, who documented the killing of 11,000 detainees under torture in Assad’s prisons. France has supported the draft resolution to refer the crimes of the Assad regime to the International Criminal Court. Cesar leaked 55,000 photos of detainees that confirm reports about crimes and methods of torture in Assad’s secret prisons in Syria. The photos show bloodstained bodies with signs of torture, emaciation, strangulation and electrocution of detainees. A European diplomat said that the French draft resolution was discussed by Western permanent members in the UN Security Council, namely France, the United States, and Britain, and will be distributed to other members of the Security Council after Tuesday’s session. Valerie Amos, Assistant UN Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs confirmed in a statement released last week that attacks on civilians are war crimes, and may amount to crimes against humanity, pointing out that the use of car bombs, barrel bombs, and indiscriminate aerial and artillery bombardment on civilian are violations of international humanitarian law. (Source: Al Sharq Al-Awsat)