Lebanese lawyer and expert in international law, Tariq Shandab, said that the American judiciary has the jurisdiction to prosecute the Assad regime for the killing of American journalist Marie Colvin in Syria in 2012.
Shandab on Tuesday told Smart News Network that the US court that found the Assad regime liable for Colvin’s death has the external jurisdiction to prosecute criminals. He pointed out that the prosecution can be implemented through a freeze on the assets of the persons involved in Colvin’s death deposited in foreign banks.
Shandab pointed out that the Interpol has the authority to enforce law against those who have been indicted in case international courts failed to take action. He noted that such step could be the beginning of bringing more prosecutions in Washington and other countries against officials of the Assad regime.
Shandab pointed out that some countries give their courts jurisdiction to prosecute crimes against humanity committed outside their borders. He noted that the Caesar law allows the prosecution of persons linked to the Assad regime under the principle of universal jurisdiction.
Meanwhile, US State Department, announced it was pressing for securing support for an investigation into the Assad regime’s crimes following a ruling by the US district court for the District of Columbia that found the Assad regime responsible for the death of the US war correspondent Marie Colvin.
On January 23, the US House of Representatives passed the Caesar Syrian Civilian Protection Act of 2019 to impose new sanctions on the Assad regime and its supporters. Caesar is the codename of the former military photographer who smuggled about 50,000 photos of 11,000 detainees who were killed under torture in the prisons of the Assad regime.
Moreover, the French judiciary on November 2018 issued international arrest warrants for three senior officials of the Assad regime’s intelligence, including the Director of the National Security Ali Mamlouk who is in charge of most of the regime’s security services.
A Canadian investigator has collected about one million documents, some of which bear the signature of Bashar al-Assad confirming his responsibility for war crimes in Syria. The documents will be presented to international courts later.
The family of the American journalist Marie Colvin filed a lawsuit before an American court accusing the Assad regime of deliberately killing her. Colvin was killed in sustained artillery barrages by the Assad regime on the apartment building housing the media center in Bab Amr along with French photographer Remi Ochlik back in 2012. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)
