{"id":27068,"date":"2016-04-28T14:05:50","date_gmt":"2016-04-28T12:05:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/27068-syria.html"},"modified":"2016-04-28T14:05:50","modified_gmt":"2016-04-28T12:05:50","slug":"syria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/27068-syria.html","title":{"rendered":"Seeking justice for Syrian war criminals in the EU"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mohamed Abdullah probably arrived in Europe some time last year.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In a picture purportedly uploaded to his Facebook page, which has since been deleted, the 31-year-old Syrian stands smiling in front of a car park that is traceable to Stockholm because of a phone number in the background. It\u2019s an innocuous image, like the thousands of others uploaded by refugees after they successfully reach Europe \u2014 an announcement that they\u2019ve made it; the beginning of a new life.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Mohamed Abdullah posing in Stockholm for a picture uploaded to his Facebook page<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

But there were other photos too \u2013 images from Abdullah\u2019s past that, by November last year, were being circulated by activists and other refugees.<\/p>\n

In one, Abdullah is standing with his boot on the corpse of a man in civilian clothing surrounded by other corpses. He is looking directly into the camera, a grim half-smile on his face.<\/p>\n

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<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Another photograph shows a special forces badge on Abdullah\u2019s left arm, which Syrian activists claim identifies him as a member of Division 14, a unit alleged to have committed atrocities during the 2012 siege of Homs.<\/p>\n

Syrian-run website Mujremon posted the pictures<\/a>, and Ammar*, a Palestinian refugee from Syria now living in Sweden, tweeted them, along with a request for help from other Syrians in the country to find and report Abdullah to the Swedish authorities.<\/p>\n

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\"This guy had a picture clearly showing he was in Sweden; and in the other photo, he was clearly standing on bodies\u2026 looking proud about it.\"<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cIt was a big shock for me,\u201d Ammar told IRIN, explaining his decision. \"This guy had a picture clearly showing he was in Sweden; and in the other photo, he was clearly standing on bodies\u2026 looking proud about it. And now this guy\u2019s in Sweden taking the Metro like other people, seeking asylum like other people, when it\u2019s people like him who actually caused this crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

A fellow Palestinian-Syrian, also in Sweden, eventually contacted the national prosecutor about Abdullah. Three or four months after first posting the image, Ammar says he got a call from the police asking him to help track down witnesses.<\/p>\n

Abdullah was found and appeared in a Stockholm court in February, accused of war crimes committed between 2012 and 2015. He reportedly admitted working for the Syrian regime, but denied ever participating as a fighter. The case was eventually dismissed due to a lack of corroborating witnesses. Abdullah was released last month and his current whereabouts are unknown.<\/p>\n

Cases like Abdullah\u2019s are not a one-off.<\/p>\n

Six months ago, Ben Davies, a British journalist and activist filmmaker who visited Syria in 2013, began documenting cases of alleged Syrian war criminals who had made it to Europe. His blog features dozens of them<\/a>, but he estimates there could be as many as 2,000 in Europe. One of the men on his blog is a soldier in the Syrian Army who was once filmed on the frontlines during a photo-op with President Bashar al-Assad. In another, an Armenian Christian militia fighter from Aleppo is shown proudly holding an Uzi. Both men are now thought to be in Germany.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes, I find people myself by following their Facebook pages and seeing what they\u2019re doing. But a lot of the time, Syrians have already found these people and they message me and ask for help in sharing the evidence,\u201d Davies explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Europe, [Syrians] are meant to feel safe as refugees. How are we giving them safety when we\u2019re ignoring the people who caused their suffering and who are now following them?\u201d<\/p>\n

A united European response?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In October 2013, a group of prosecutors, investigators and NGOs from around the EU came together to discuss the deteriorating situation in Syria.<\/p>\n

The meeting was hosted by the \u201cGenocide Network\u201d \u2013 formed in 2004 to provide a platform for prosecutors and practitioners from EU member states to exchange information, cases and best practices for trying serious international crimes. Among the network\u2019s key aims was the formation of specialised national units for investigating and prosecuting crimes like genocide through the legal principle of universal jurisdiction.<\/p>\n

See: The beginnings of transitional justice in Syria<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The meeting in 2013, which has since become an annual fixture, involved such units from around the EU, as well as international teams working specifically on war crimes in Syria: Human Rights Watch; former US State Department ambassador-at-large for war crimes Stephen Rapp; and representatives from the Commission for International Justice and Accountability, which in the past four years has accrued more than 600,000 government documents from Syria \u2014 many of them smuggled out by investigators and regime defectors.<\/p>\n

\"We took the initiative to address the [Syrian] conflict as it was happening. We saw that this conflict would have an effect on EU jurisdictions,\u201d explained Matev\u017e Pezdirc, a Slovenian war crimes practitioner who heads the network\u2019s secretariat at The Hague. \u201cIt was very much understood then that due to the close proximity of the conflict, geographically, there would be potential cases in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n