The Secretary of the Political Committee of the Syrian Opposition Coalition (SOC), Abdul Majeed Barakat, has welcomed the investigation initiated by the U.S. attorney in Chicago into the role of two high-ranking officials of the Assad regime in the killing of a Syrian-American citizen. Barakat emphasized the importance of continuing to bring war criminals to justice and holding them accountable for their actions.
Barakat highlighted that the prosecution of war criminals is a crucial aspect of the UN resolutions on Syria, including the Geneva Communique of 2012 and UN Resolutions 2118 and 2254. He added that it is a vital step towards meeting the demands of the Syrian people and achieving a political transition that will restore security and stability to Syria and the region.
Barakat emphasized the need to keep working towards prosecuting war criminals and proving the charges against them. He believes that it is an essential step in preventing any attempts to rehabilitate the Assad regime and its leaders.
The investigation aims to hold Jamil al-Hassan and Ali Mamlouk accountable for the killing of Syrian-American citizen Layla Shweikani in 2016 in a regime prison. If the men are indicted for war crimes, it would be the first time that the United States has criminally charged top Syrian officials with human rights abuses. Some European countries have already taken similar steps against senior officials of the Assad regime.
Shweikani, a twenty-eight-year-old aid worker, was arrested by the Assad regime’s security services in February 2016 in Damascus, along with her father and fiancé. Human rights activists discovered that the victim had died in a regime prison after a death certificate was issued by the regime’s Civil Registry Department, as was the case with thousands of other victims in regime prisons.
(Source: SOC’s Media Department)
