Calls for justice and accountability after Assad’s fall

The new Syrian authorities promise justice for the crimes of the Assad regime. But this is a difficult task, as many have suffered losses of various kinds in the civil war. Sebastian Asher met in Damascus with people for whom justice is key to how they see Syria’s future.

On the edge of Douma, one of Damascus’ most war-torn suburbs, in a curtained living room next to a stove, Umm Mazen recounts the 12 years she spent desperately searching for news of her two sons, who were arrested in the early years of the uprising and civil war and absorbed into the system. security of the Assad era.

For her eldest son, Mazen, she finally obtained a death certificate, but for Abu Hadi, no trace of him was ever issued.

Her third son, Ahmed, spent three years in the security system, including eight months in the red block for political prisoners in the notorious Saydnaya prison.

His front teeth baked by the executioner’s hammer, he remembers one moment when he thinks he heard his brother Mazen’s voice answering the roll call in the same prison, but no more.

What kind of justice does Um Mazen seek for the destruction of her family?

“There must be divine justice that comes from God,” she says.

“I saw some local men leading a shabiha (an armed supporter of the regime) to be killed.

“I told them, ‘Don’t kill him, rather torture him exactly like he tortured our young men.’

“Two of my children died — or may have died, but there are thousands of other young people who have been tortured.

“I pray to God that Bashar (Assad) remains in the underground and that Russia, which protected him, could not help him.

“I pray to God that somewhere underground he will be caught and that he will remain in oblivion – the way he left our young people in their prisons.”

Lawyer Hussein Issa sought justice for dozens of people accused of political crimes under Assad.

He faced constant pressure from the authorities for his legal work, but he persevered and managed to save some of his clients from being crushed under the wheels of the security system.

But for those appointed to special terrorism courts, there was usually nothing that could be done.

The Terrorism Act loomed ever more darkly over Syria as the civil war continued.

Now, with a mountain on the edge of Damascus visible through the window of his seedy, smoke-filled office, the 54-year-old lawyer says he believes many of the judges who have been complicit with the Assad regime should be kicked out and prosecuted.

But others from that era, he says, may still play a role in the new court system.

As for the huge challenge of trying to bring back retrospective justice for the horrors of the past 50 years, Mr Issa says building a judiciary capable of doing so is the most important task for Syria’s new authorities.

“If this system is not good, the future of the new state will be bleak.

“We don’t know how bad it could be. We are already afraid that some parties may cause quarrels and conflicts.

“If we have a strong system and state, then we will not be afraid of these things.

“If we don’t have them, we will be afraid. However, being an optimist by nature, I think the new regime will definitely be better.”

The monumental building in the Syrian capital, which houses the Ministry of Justice, was suspended for several weeks after the fall of Assad.

Groups of lawyers have now gathered in elevators and corridors ahead of the reopening of civil and criminal courts.

In her fifth-floor office, Deputy Justice Minister Hitam Haddad says criminal and civil cases will be reopened, but not yet tackle crimes committed under the previous regime. .

Her large, heavy desk is piled high with official papers, and she says she has been a judge since 2013.

In 2023, she was appointed Deputy Minister of Justice, and remains in this position.

“I felt personally responsible for it,” she says.

“It is necessary for the work to continue, for the judges to return to their work and for the courts to return, because as a Syrian I want my work to continue and I want this victory to continue so that people have nothing to do. to be afraid

“I want to send real and realistic messages of encouragement, not just talk.”

But some lawyers are already worried about the transition authorities’ move to create a council to oversee the Bar Association without putting it to a vote.

In the petition, they said this approach would replace one form of authoritarianism with another.

For now, the Assad-era laws and judiciary remain in place, including the terrorism law.

It may take a long time for the cases of someone accused of crimes of the ousted regime to reach court.

The new authorities have told Syrians not to take matters into their own hands as videos of the brutal trial of some former officials have been circulated.

There were raids and arrests – and some of those who fled across the border to Lebanon or Iraq were returned.

But the big question remains whether the justice system, so long an instrument of repression, can be reconfigured to take on this enormous moral and logistical challenge.

High on a mountain above Damascus, Syrians young and old still breathe freely – intoxicated by the cold, clear winter air – in a place forbidden to them by security forces for more than a decade.

In the cafes and kiosks that have sprung up in the weeks since Assad’s ouster, they look at the city spread out before them – both with dark memories and the promise of a different future, one in which justice and accountability can only be allowed to play a role.