[JURIST] The Commission for International Justice and Accountability (CIJA) has obtained secret documents from Syria that have led members to believe Syrian President Bashar al-Assad [official website] can be successfully prosecuted for war crimes. The documents allegedly prove [New Yorker report] that Assad was the commander responsible for the torture and killing of his own citizens. This is the first international war crimes investigation completed by an independent group without a court order, yet funded by governments. The CIJA asserts that all that is needed to successfully prosecute Assad is a court to hear the case.

Last month the president of Turkey urged [JURIST report] the prosecution of Assad in the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website]. Also last month the US House Foreign Affairs Committee [official website] passed two resolutions [JURIST report] calling for an international tribunal in the Middle East to address the alleged war crimes committed by the government of Syria and its allies. The Syrian Civil War [JURIST backgrounder] has been ongoing since 2011 when opposition groups first began protesting the Assad regime, and the increasingly bloody nature of the conflict has put pressure on the international community to intervene. Earlier in March Amnesty International reported [JURIST report] that Russian and Syrian armed forces are deliberately attacking hospitals and other medical facilities as part of a military strategy to clear the way to northern Aleppo. Just prior, the US House Foreign Affairs Committee passed two resolutions calling for an international tribunal in the Middle East to address [JURIST report] the alleged war crimes committed by the government of Syria and its allies, specifically Russia and Iran.