police
photographer has smuggled out of Syria evidence
of the torture and killing of 11,000 detainees,
according to a report by three former war crimes
prosecutors.
The shocking images show emaciated corpses with
strangulation marks, cuts, bruising and signs of
electrocution – evidence of extreme torture, claim
investigators. Some victims had no eyes.
The photos will ratchet up the pressure on
President Bashar Al Assad who the US and its
Western allies – including the UK – say has
committed war crimes against his own people.
Assad denies the claims, insisting he is fighting
terrorists.
The 31-page report – released by The Guardian and
CNN – was commissioned by Carter-Ruck solicitors
in London on behalf of Qatar, a supporter of the
Syrian uprising. Continue…but warning *Very
Graphic Content*
Shocking: This picture is one of 55,000 taken by a
Syrian military police defector showing emaciated
corpses which investigators say are evidence of
extreme torture by Assad's regime.
Leverage: The report is being made available to the
United Nations, governments and human rights
groups just as peace talks are due to begin in
Switzerland tomorrow to try to end the 3-year
conflict
The dossier is being made available to the United
Nations, governments and human rights groups
just as peace talks are due to begin in Switzerland
tomorrow to try to end the three-year conflict. The
defector's evidence records deaths of those in
custody from March 2011 until August 2013. The
photos were smuggled out along with files
detailing the victims on memory sticks.
Three lawyers, all former prosecutors at the
criminal tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and
Sierra Leone, examined the evidence and said they
found the defector, who goes by the name of
Caesar, credible.
According to the report, he said his job was to take
pictures of killed detainees, though he did not
claim to have witnessed executions or torture.
Dossier of evidence: The photos will ratchet up the
pressure on President Bashar Al Assad who the US
and its Western allies – including the UK – say has
committed war crimes against his own people
Allegations: The photographs allowed a death
certificate to be produced without requiring
families to view bodies, and also confirmed that
execution orders had been carried out, the report
claimed
'There could be as many as 50 bodies a day to
photograph which require 15 to 30 minutes of work
per corpse,' he told an inquiry team.
The photographs allowed a death certificate to be
produced without requiring families to view bodies,
and also confirmed that execution orders had been
carried out, he claimed.
Families of the dead were told cause of death was
either a heart attack or breathing problems.
The inquiry team said it was satisfied there was
'clear evidence, capable of being believed by a
tribunal of fact in a court of law, of systematic
torture and killing of detained persons by the
agents of the Syrian government'.
Horrific: The inquiry team said it was satisfied there
was 'clear evidence, capable of being believed by a
tribunal of fact in a court of law, of systematic
torture and killing of persons detained by the
Syrian government'
The evidence would 'support findings of crimes
against humanity and could also support findings
of war crimes'.
Caesar's path to defection began in September
2011, around seven months after the conflict broke
out, when he was contacted by a relative who had
fled the country.
The man – known as 'Caesar's contact' – was
working for 'international human rights groups',
according to the report.
Caesar began sending him thousands of images,
but soon became concerned for his safety, so the
Syrian opposition arranged for him and his family
to be smuggled out of the country.
Their location has not been revealed, with the
lawyers only saying they conducted their
investigation in the Middle East.
It is also not clear how the Qatari regime came to
be involved in the publication of the report.
Qatar has carved an influential role in Syria by
being quick to help the rebels and, later, by helping
set up the Coalition a year ago with the aim of
creating a credible alternative to Assad.
Defector: Caesar began sending him thousands of
images, but soon became concerned for his safety,
so the Syrian opposition arranged for him and his
family to be smuggled out of the country
Evidence of strangulation: A picture which appears
to show a ligature mark on a corpse's neck
Qatar and Saudi Arabia are close allies in many
respects. As Sunni Muslims, they share an interest
in thwarting Shi'ite, non-Arab Iran and its Arab
allies – Shi'ites in Iraq and Lebanon and Assad's
Syrian Alawites.
Last year, however, Qatar found itself under
pressure from Saudi Arabia and from the United
States over the way the war was going, and notably
over the rising influence on the frontlines of
Islamists hostile to the West and to its allies in the
Middle East – like the Saudi royal house.
An expansion of the Coalition to 120 seats diluted
Qatari control and handed leadership to the Saudi-
backed Jarba. On the ground, however, Qatar is still
a force, through groups like al-Tawhid, part of a
new Islamic Front that controls large areas and
coordinates with the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front.
A Gulf source with knowledge of Qatari policy said
the new emir, in power since June, wanted a lower
profile than his father who had strongly backed the
Arab revolts.
The new emir was also more open to Western
requests to stop supporting militants, though Qatar
still believed that arming rebels was needed to
force Assad to compromise, however, the source
said.
The report's authors are Sir Desmond de Silva,
former chief prosecutor of the special court for
Sierra Leone, Sir Geoffrey Nice, the former lead
prosecutor of former Yugoslavian president
Slobodan Milosevic, and Professor David Crane,
who indicted President Charles Taylor of Liberia at
the Sierra Leone court.
The Syrian regime has also funded and co-operated
with al-Qaeda in a complex double game – even as
the terrorists fight Damascus, it was claimed last
night.
Western intelligence agencies, anti-rebels and al-
Qaeda defectors claim two al-Qaeda affiliates
operating in Syria have both been financed by
selling oil and gas to and through the regime from
wells under their control.
Rebels and defectors said the regime also
deliberately released militant prisoners to
strengthen jihadist ranks at the expense of
moderate rebel forces.
The aim was to persuade the West that the
uprising was sponsored by Islamist militants
including al-Qaeda as a way of stopping Western
support for it, the intelligence report claims.
Doubt remains over whether Assad will attend
tomorrow's Geneva II conference in the Swiss resort
of Montreux which is aimed at negotiating his exit
from power.
But in an interview released yesterday, Assad said
there was a 'significant' chance he will seek a new
term.
He also ruled out any power-sharing deal with the
opposition which he dismissed as having been
'created' by foreign backers.
And he called for the peace talks to focus on what
he termed his 'war against terrorism'.
Meanwhile, Russia's foreign minister says that the
U.N. decision to rescind the invitation to Iran to join
the peace talks was a mistake but not a
catastrophe.
Sergey Lavrov said Tuesday that UN Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon's decision to withdraw his
last-minute offer to Iran to attend the conference
would have a negative impact on the United
Nations image.
SOURCE: Daily Mail UK
Sent From David Aniemeka
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