Syria has tortured tens of thousands of its people and maintains a “widespread and pervasive” system of “abhorrent treatment”, world court judges have heard at the first international case related to the civil war in the country.
Canada and the Netherlands have brought Syria before the international court of justice (ICJ), seeking urgent measures to stop the mistreatment of thousands of people still in detention.
“Every day counts,” René Lefeber, the top representative for the Netherlands, told the court. “Persons in Syria who are currently detained or at risk of being detained cannot afford to wait any longer.”
Damascus snubbed the first day of hearings and has previously dismissed the case as “disinformation and lies”, saying the allegations “lack the slightest degree of credibility”.
Lefeber cited wrenching testimony from detainees, describing gang rapes, mutilation and a “standardised” punishment method involving contorting people into a car tyre and administering a “severe beating”.
Canada and the Netherlands have asked the ICJ to “urgently” demand that Syria stop all torture and arbitrary detention, open prisons to outside inspectors and provide information to families about the fate of their loved ones.
The ICJ can take years to rule on a case, but urgent “provisional measures” can be ordered in a matter of weeks and are legally binding.
“It is our sincere belief that the lives and wellbeing of Syrians are at stake and require the court’s immediate attention,” said Lefeber.
Ahmad Helmi, a former prisoner who is now an activist, said: “I was in prison in Syria for three years and I know for sure that torture is happening around the clock. It’s happening around the hour.”
“It doesn’t happen only for interrogation. Sometimes it happens for fun. Just because they feel they enjoy impunity, they can do whatever they want.”
“Hundreds of people are dying under torture every month,” said Helmi in an interview before the hearings.
Balkees Jarrah, from Human Rights Watch, said the ICJ needed to act “to prevent further abuses against Syrians, who continue to suffer under nightmarish conditions and whose lives are in serious jeopardy”.
While there have been individual war crimes cases linked to the Syrian war in some countries, there has long been frustration in western capitals at the lack of any wider plan for international justice.
The Dutch first launched a campaign in September 2020 to hold Syria responsible for alleged breaches of the UN convention against torture, to which Damascus is a signatory.
Canada joined the case in March 2021.
The international criminal court (ICC) – a war crimes court which, like the ICJ, is based in The Hague – has been unable to deal with Syria since Damascus never ratified the Rome statute, the tribunal’s founding treaty.
Russia and China blocked a draft UN security council resolution to refer the situation in Syria to the ICC in 2014.
The situation gained renewed attention after the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, returned to the international fold in May when he attended an Arab League summit.
Describing the hearings as a “watershed” case, Human Rights Watch said it hoped the ICJ proceedings would shine a spotlight on Assad’s return from isolation.
Helmi said that although there was no chance of “rogue state” Syria accepting any decisions by the ICJ, a ruling was still important for victims and families.
“We are not talking about a local court somewhere. It’s not me saying torture is happening. This will be the ICJ saying that torture is happening,” he said.
“And whoever wants to re-normalise the Syrian regime, they will have this tag on their forehead that you are normalising with a state that is torturing people around the clock.”
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