Keystone-SDA
The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan, was received on Friday by the new Syrian leader, Ahmad al-Chareh. The latter took power after the fall of Bashar al-Assad accused of crimes during the civil war.
This content was published on
January 17, 2025 – 4:45 p.m.
(Keystone-ATS) Mr. Chareh and the head of Syrian diplomacy, Assaad al-Chaibani, met “a delegation from the International Criminal Court, led” by Karim Khan, said the official Sana news agency, which also published images of the meeting.
The deposed president, Bashar al-Assad, who fled to Moscow, refused to cooperate with the ICC, not recognizing its jurisdiction over his territory.
-Do justice
Mr. Chareh’s Islamist group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), led a coalition that toppled Assad on December 8, more than 13 years after a bloody crackdown on anti-Assad protests sparked a war that ended in 500,000 deaths.
The new authorities have promised to bring justice to the victims of atrocities committed during the decades of rule of the Assad clan, pledging to try those responsible for the torture of detainees. They urged the international community to hand over wanted people who have fled.
The ICC, based in The Hague, has been unable to investigate Syria because the country has never ratified the Rome Statute, its founding treaty.
In 2014, Russia and China vetoed a draft Security Council resolution to refer the Syrian case to the ICC.
