The first criminal case in a Western court against members of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government began with a WhatsApp message.
Amal and her younger brother, Abdul, were inseparable growing up in an upper-class home in a village in Idlib province in northwestern Syria. Amal left Syria at the age of 19, following her fiance, a medical student, to Spain and later she became a Spanish citizen.
Amal was not sure what had happened to her brother — until that moment in 2015 when she stared down at Abdul’s lifeless, dirt-covered face, half in shadow. There was a piece of white tape on his forehead with illegible markings on it. The picture had been found on the Facebook page of a human rights group and forwarded to Amal by a relative.
Once Amal had recovered from the shock of seeing her dead brother, she sent a message to the Facebook page in which she provided Abdul’s full name, along with her contact information. She included a photo of Abdul from before his arrest by Syrian forces.
Amal did not realize it at the time, but her response had opened a legal pathway which international war crimes investigators had long been waiting for.
Read the whole story from The Washington Post.
Featured image courtesy of Reuters.
The first criminal case in a Western court against members of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government began with a WhatsApp message.
Amal and her younger brother, Abdul, were inseparable growing up in an upper-class home in a village in Idlib province in northwestern Syria. Amal left Syria at the age of 19, following her fiance, a medical student, to Spain and later she became a Spanish citizen.
Amal was not sure what had happened to her brother — until that moment in 2015 when she stared down at Abdul’s lifeless, dirt-covered face, half in shadow. There was a piece of white tape on his forehead with illegible markings on it. The picture had been found on the Facebook page of a human rights group and forwarded to Amal by a relative.
Once Amal had recovered from the shock of seeing her dead brother, she sent a message to the Facebook page in which she provided Abdul’s full name, along with her contact information. She included a photo of Abdul from before his arrest by Syrian forces.
Amal did not realize it at the time, but her response had opened a legal pathway which international war crimes investigators had long been waiting for.
Read the whole story from The Washington Post.
Featured image courtesy of Reuters.
COMMENTS
There are on this article.
You must become a subscriber or login to view or post comments on this article.