UN investigative body hopes to send team to Syria to secure evidence

The head of a U.N. investigative body has expressed a willingness to engage with Syria’s new authorities and travel to the country to gather evidence that could implicate former government officials, following the recent overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad. This development has sparked fresh hopes for accountability for crimes committed during Syria's more than 13-year civil war.

Robert Petit, the head of the International, Impartial, and Independent Mechanism (IIIM), stated on Tuesday that his team’s priority would be to assess the situation on the ground, evaluate what evidence is available, and determine how best to preserve it for future prosecutions. He emphasized the potential to access critical evidence linking high-level officials from the Assad regime to atrocities.

"We are ready to go and scope out the situation, see what’s available in terms of access to evidence, and then figure out how we can best assist in preserving that," Petit explained during a press briefing in Geneva. "The possibility of accessing evidence related to the highest levels of the regime now exists."

Established in 2016, the IIIM was created to investigate and help prosecute the most serious crimes committed during Syria's conflict. The body has already collected 283 terabytes of data and works with national prosecutors in countries like Belgium, France, and the United States, assisting with ongoing Syria-related investigations.

Petit noted that while some evidence may have been lost during the transitional phase in Syria, it is still too early to determine the full extent of the damage. However, he acknowledged that both the transitional authorities and Syrian civil society groups appeared to be aware of the importance of preserving evidence for future accountability.

"We’ve noticed a hopeful level of awareness from the transitional authorities and from Syrian civil society actors about the need to preserve evidence," Petit said.