DEMO
01-10-2017, 10:18
STOCKHOLM — Grinning for the camera, a man in Syrian army fatigues rests his boot on a corpse. Around him, more bodies litter the floor.
The photograph resembles hundreds, if not thousands, of images that have streamed out of Syria during six years of war. But for prosecutors a 3,000-mile drive away in the Swedish capital of Stockholm, this one was different.
The photo was presented as evidence in a trial that ended in a landmark conviction last week, the first anywhere in the world of a Syrian soldier for crimes committed during the war.
Monitoring groups say President Bashar al-Assad’s forces are responsible for most of atrocities committed in the war, but cases previously tried in Sweden have involved fighters for the Islamic State or Syria’s rebel forces.
Mohammed Abdullah, 32, was sentenced to eight months in prison for violating the personal dignity of the men lying at his feet in the photograph.
With the U.N. Security Council deadlocked over Syria’s war and international willingness for high-level prosecution fading, lawyers have turned to the principal of universal jurisdiction, which allows national courts to investigate certain international crimes.
op deze link kan je verder lezen..
http://https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/a-syrian-soldier-has-been-sentenced-for-battlefield-crimes-why-did-it-take-so-long/2017/09/30/d4ab28d6-a362-11e7-8c37-e1d99ad6aa22_story.html?utm_term=.d11e2621d061
The photograph resembles hundreds, if not thousands, of images that have streamed out of Syria during six years of war. But for prosecutors a 3,000-mile drive away in the Swedish capital of Stockholm, this one was different.
The photo was presented as evidence in a trial that ended in a landmark conviction last week, the first anywhere in the world of a Syrian soldier for crimes committed during the war.
Monitoring groups say President Bashar al-Assad’s forces are responsible for most of atrocities committed in the war, but cases previously tried in Sweden have involved fighters for the Islamic State or Syria’s rebel forces.
Mohammed Abdullah, 32, was sentenced to eight months in prison for violating the personal dignity of the men lying at his feet in the photograph.
With the U.N. Security Council deadlocked over Syria’s war and international willingness for high-level prosecution fading, lawyers have turned to the principal of universal jurisdiction, which allows national courts to investigate certain international crimes.
op deze link kan je verder lezen..
http://https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/a-syrian-soldier-has-been-sentenced-for-battlefield-crimes-why-did-it-take-so-long/2017/09/30/d4ab28d6-a362-11e7-8c37-e1d99ad6aa22_story.html?utm_term=.d11e2621d061