A military police photographer has smuggled
out of Syria evidence of the torture and
killing of 11,000 detainees, according to a
report by three former war crimes
prosecutors.
The shocking images show emaciated corpses
with strangulation marks, cuts, bruising and
signs of electrocution – evidence of extreme
torture, claim investigators. Some victims had
no eyes.
The 55,000 photos will ratchet up the
pressure on President Bashar Al Assad who
the US and its Western allies – including the
UK – say has committed war crimes against
his own people. Assad denies the claims,
insisting he is fighting terrorists.
The 31-page report - released by The
Guardian and CNN - was commissioned by
Carter-Ruck solicitors in London on behalf of
Qatar, a supporter of the Syrian uprising.
Continue...but warning *Very Graphic
Content*
Shocking: This picture is one of 55,000 taken
by a Syrian military police defector showing
emaciated corpses which investigators say are
evidence of extreme torture by Assad's
regime.
Leverage: The report is being made available
to the United Nations, governments and
human rights groups just as peace talks are
due to begin in Switzerland tomorrow to try
to end the 3-year conflict
The dossier is being made available to the
United Nations, governments and human
rights groups just as peace talks are due to
begin in Switzerland tomorrow to try to end
the three-year conflict. The defector’s
evidence records deaths of those in custody
from March 2011 until August 2013.
The
photos were smuggled out along with files
detailing the victims on memory sticks.
Three lawyers, all former prosecutors at the
criminal tribunals for the former Yugoslavia
and Sierra Leone, examined the evidence and
said they found the defector, who goes by the
name of Caesar, credible.
According to the report , he said his job was
to take pictures of killed detainees, though he
did not claim to have witnessed executions or
torture.
Dossier of evidence: The photos will ratchet
up the pressure on President Bashar Al Assad
who the US and its Western allies - including
the UK - say has committed war crimes
against his own people
Allegations: The photographs allowed a death
certificate to be produced without requiring
families to view bodies, and also confirmed
that execution orders had been carried out,
the report claimed
‘There could be as many as 50 bodies a day to
photograph which require 15 to 30 minutes
of work per corpse,’ he told an inquiry team.
The photographs allowed a death certificate
to be produced without requiring families to
view bodies, and also confirmed that
execution orders had been carried out, he
claimed.
Families of the dead were told cause of death
was either a heart attack or breathing
problems.
The inquiry team said it was satisfied there
was ‘clear evidence, capable of being believed
by a tribunal of fact in a court of law, of
systematic torture and killing of detained
persons by the agents of the Syrian
government’.
Horrific: The inquiry team said it was satisfied
there was 'clear evidence, capable of being
believed by a tribunal of fact in a court of
law, of systematic torture and killing of
persons detained by the Syrian government'
The evidence would ‘support findings of
crimes against humanity and could also
support findings of war crimes’.
Caesar's path to defection began in September
2011, around seven months after the conflict
broke out, when he was contacted by a
relative who had fled the country.
The man - known as 'Caesar's contact' - was
working for 'international human rights
groups', according to the report.
Caesar began sending him thousands of
images, but soon became concerned for his
safety, so the Syrian opposition arranged for
him and his family to be smuggled out of the
country.
Their location has not been revealed, with
the lawyers only saying they conducted their
investigation in the Middle East.
It is also not clear how the Qatari regime
came to be involved in the publication of the
report.
Qatar has carved an influential role in Syria
by being quick to help the rebels and, later,
by helping set up the Coalition a year ago
with the aim of creating a credible alternative
to Assad.
Defector: Caesar began sending him
thousands of images, but soon became
concerned for his safety, so the Syrian
opposition arranged for him and his family to
be smuggled out of the country
Evidence of strangulation: A picture which
appears to show a ligature mark on a
corpse's neck
Qatar and Saudi Arabia are close allies in
many respects. As Sunni Muslims, they share
an interest in thwarting Shi'ite, non-Arab Iran
and its Arab allies - Shi'ites in Iraq and
Lebanon and Assad's Syrian Alawites.
Last year, however, Qatar found itself under
pressure from Saudi Arabia and from the
United States over the way the war was going,
and notably over the rising influence on the
frontlines of Islamists hostile to the West and
to its allies in the Middle East - like the Saudi
royal house.
An expansion of the Coalition to 120 seats
diluted Qatari control and handed leadership
to the Saudi-backed Jarba. On the ground,
however, Qatar is still a force, through
groups like al-Tawhid, part of a new Islamic
Front that controls large areas and
coordinates with the al Qaeda-linked Nusra
Front.
A Gulf source with knowledge of Qatari policy
said the new emir, in power since June,
wanted a lower profile than his father who
had strongly backed the Arab revolts.
The new emir was also more open to Western
requests to stop supporting militants, though
Qatar still believed that arming rebels was
needed to force Assad to compromise,
however, the source said.
The report's authors are Sir Desmond de
Silva, former chief prosecutor of the special
court for Sierra Leone, Sir Geoffrey Nice, the
former lead prosecutor of former Yugoslavian
president Slobodan Milosevic, and Professor
David Crane, who indicted President Charles
Taylor of Liberia at the Sierra Leone court.
The Syrian regime has also funded and co-
operated with al-Qaeda in a complex double
game - even as the terrorists fight Damascus,
it was claimed last night.
Western intelligence agencies, anti-rebels and
al-Qaeda defectors claim two al-Qaeda
affiliates operating in Syria have both been
financed by selling oil and gas to and through
the regime from wells under their control.
Rebels and defectors said the regime also
deliberately released militant prisoners to
strengthen jihadist ranks at the expense of
moderate rebel forces.
The aim was to persuade the West that the
uprising was sponsored by Islamist militants
including al-Qaeda as a way of stopping
Western support for it, the intelligence report
claims.
Doubt remains over whether Assad will attend
tomorrow's Geneva II conference in the Swiss
resort of Montreux which is aimed at
negotiating his exit from power.
But in an interview released yesterday, Assad
said there was a 'significant' chance he will
seek a new term.
He also ruled out any power-sharing deal with
the opposition which he dismissed as having
been 'created' by foreign backers.
And he called for the peace talks to focus on
what he termed his 'war against terrorism'.
Meanwhile, Russia's foreign minister says that
the U.N. decision to rescind the invitation to
Iran to join the peace talks was a mistake but
not a catastrophe.
Sergey Lavrov said Tuesday that UN Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon's decision to withdraw
his last-minute offer to Iran to attend the
conference would have a negative impact on
the United Nations image
Source: linda ikeji
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