BICOM

Twenty eight Syrian refugees are launching a bid to prosecute the Syrian regime for war crimes at the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Human rights lawyers acting on behalf of the refugees filed the first cases against the Assad regime at the ICC in The Hague on Thursday. The refugees say they were forced to flee to Jordan after being tortured and witnessing massacres perpetrated by the Syrian regime.

The submission is being coordinated by London barrister Rodney Dixon QC. Dixon said: “The ICC exists precisely to bring justice to the victims of these most brutal international crimes.” He added: “The devastating war in Syria has been going on for almost nine years now and no one has yet been held accountable for the hundreds of thousands of violations against civilians.”

One of the refugees involved in the submission said of their experience in Syria: “I saw a lot of people being shot at by the regime forces; people were being randomly shot, including my 18-year-old nephew.” He continued: “We had to flee to a safer location … I left with my four other children and we made our way to Jordan.”

The ICC is being asked to investigate possible crimes against humanity committed during the eight-year civil war, which has left more than 360,000 people dead and millions displaced. The ICC has previously demurred from acting on allegations that the Assad regime has committed war crimes because prosecutors in The Hague have not accepted they have jurisdiction to act in Syria, because the country is not a signatory to the court.

But the BBC reports that: “Lawyers have used a precedent set by a recent ICC ruling on Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.”

In the Rohingya case, the judges ruled that “while Myanmar is not a member of the court, Bangladesh is, and that because part of the alleged crime happened on Bangladeshi territory the prosecutor does have jurisdiction.” This has raised hopes that a similar principle may apply in the case of Syria.

An ICC spokesperson said: “We will analyse the materials submitted, as appropriate … as soon as we reach a decision on the appropriate next step, we will inform the sender and provide reasons for our decision.”