Excerpts: Lawsuit against Assad filed at International Criminal Court 19
April 2012

+++Lawsuit against Assad filed at International Criminal Court

SOURCE: Naharnet(Lebanon) 19 April’12:”Report: Lebanese Lawyers File Lawsuit
against Assad at ICC”

SUBJECT: Lawsuit against Assad filed at International Criminal Court

QUOTE:”complaint supported with videos, filmed confessions . to prove the
validity of these crimes”

FULL TEXT:Lebanese lawyers representing Syrian refugees in northern Lebanon
filed a lawsuit to the first chief prosecutor of the Hague-based
International Criminal Court (ICC) Luis Moreno-Ocampo against Syrian
President Bashar Assad, the Kuwaiti al-Anba newspaper reported on
Thursday[19 April].

The refugees accused Assad, who is the supreme commander of the Syrian Army
and armed forces, and his accomplices of committing “murders, war crimes,
genocides and crimes against humanity” in Syria since the March 2010
uprising against the regime.

“Over a year ago, peaceful protests kicked off in Syria demanding freedom
and democracy… But Assad gave instructions to the army to launch a crackdown
on protesters and to commit mass murder and massacres which caused the death
of 12,000 unarmed Syrian people,” the refugees said in their complaint.

According to al-Anba, the complaint was supported with evidence including
videos, filmed confessions, photos, witness statements and written documents
to prove the validity of these crimes.

Lebanese lawyer Tariq Shandab, who is head of the legal center to protect
the rights of refugees and one of the lawyers representing the Syrian
refugees, said that “the complaint was supported with valid evidence… that
condemns the regime.”

He told al-Anba that the “crimes committed by the Syrian regime are far more
dangerous than those committed by former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.”

Shandab stressed that the legal suit will be followed up legally “until the
victims and their families receive their rights and justice is fully
achieved.”

According to the U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, there are around 16,000 Syrian
refugees in Lebanon.
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Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA