By Michael Ader | Program Associate
Thanks to your ongoing support of SJAC’s “Support Monitoring of Syrian War Crimes Trial” campaign, we have successfully completed another quarter of trial reporting. As the trial of Anwar Raslan nears its end, we have secured sufficient funding to translate all remaining reports and have made the decision to draw this fundraiser to a close and begin work on a new campaign to train and support human rights activists in Syria. Our team of trial monitors, reviewers, and translators all benefited from your support, and were encouraged to know that people around the world are dedicated to the important work of monitoring this trial and disseminating information to the Syrian people.
To date, we have published 14 trial reports in Arabic, and Arabic summaries of an additional 34 English language reports. Thanks to the support of generous donors, we will complete the translation of all remaining trial reports over the coming months. These reports currently represent over 1,100 pages of testimony and will serve as record of this monumental trial for decades to come.
Over the course of this trial, our trial reports have helped reveal the true extent of crimes against humanity that were committed at the Al-Khatib detention facility. So far, 53 people have provided testimony at the trial, with many more waiting to tell their own personal story of how their rights, and the rights of their loved ones, were violated at the hands of Syrian government officials.
One of the most recent and poignant testimonies came from P50, a Syrian doctor who both treated detainees and became a detainee himself. Despite experiencing severe beatings as part of his time at Al-Khatib, he said the mental trauma of the experience far outweighed the physical trauma he experienced. As a doctor treating former detainees, he has seen their physical wounds heal, but describes how many suffer from long-term psychological issues, including violent outbursts and in some cases even suicide. Other testimony such as from P47 describes the terrible conditions detainees experienced while at Al-Khatib. His testimony recounts the often described “welcome party” where detainees are forced to walk through a line of guards who beat them with rifle butts while denouncing them as traitors.
Your support has ensured these stories are known. Because of restriction under German law, these experiences would have gone unheard were it not for independent trial monitoring.
Thank you again for your continued dedication to this work.
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By Michael Ader | Program Associate
By Leigh Wynveen | Program Associate
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