On February 24th, 2021, a German court sentenced Eyad al-Gharib, a former member of the Syrian regime’s intelligence service, to four and a half years in prison for aiding and abetting the torture of civilians. The court stated that the defendant had arrested at least 30 anti-government protestors at the beginning of the conflict in 2011, sending them to a facility where he knew torture takes place. This has been the first case to prosecute for war crimes after ten years of war in Syria.
The German court was able to pursue this case by invoking a “universal jurisdiction” law that allows its courts to pursue crimes against humanity committed abroad. Because Russia and China at the UN Security Council have vetoed attempts to establish an international tribunal for Syria, many Syrian activists and campaigners have viewed this verdict as an important precedent. The German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas also praised it on Twitter as “historic” and “symbolic.”
Germany is currently in the process of prosecuting another man, Anwar Raslan, a former colonel in the Syrian regime’s intelligence services, who allegedly oversaw the torture of 4,000 individuals between 2011 and 2012 at one of Damascus’ most notorious prisons. He has personally been charged with 58 murders, crimes against humanity, rape, and sexual assault.
The evidence against both Eyad al-Gharib and Anwar Raslan is mainly being provided by Syrian exiles working for various groups in Europe. The Commission for International Justice and Accountability, for example, has provided around 800,000 pieces of documentary evidence and the “Caesar Files,” which were secretly taken by a prison officer only known as “Caesar,” and include over 53,000 photographs of 6,000 corpses of individuals tortured in regime prisons between 2011 and 2013.
The Syrian War is considered by many to be the most documented war in the 21st century. However, the millions of videos, photos, and social media posts do not necessarily translate easily into evidence that can be used to prosecute war crimes. Interestingly, many of the groups working to document war crimes have been trying to develop artificial intelligence to deal with the overbearing load of evidence that is extremely exhausting and nearly impossible to parse through manually. Researchers are working on developing algorithms that can help identify, for example, illegal weapons like cluster bombs in videos and photographs. Furthermore, the UN body responsible for documenting war crimes in Syria has been developing machine-learning software that can scan through hundreds of Arabic-language documents and identify patterns that might help prosecute crimes, such as stamps, signatures, and letterheads.
Artificial intelligence has never been used to prosecute war crimes. However, as modern technology continues to intersect with law, it is likely that this case is just the beginning. For now, Germany’s recent verdict provides a small glimmer of hope for Syrians who have unsuccessfully sought justice during these last ten years of war. Anwar al-Bunni, a Syrian human rights lawyer, stated, “The first verdict against a member of the Syrian regime’s torture and murder machine is a verdict against the whole regime, not just against one individual. It gives hope that justice is possible.”