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Dear friends,
As 2022 begins, the specter of the global COVID 19 pandemic still haunts the entire planet two years after it was discovered in China in 2020. This pandemic and the various crises, whether economic, social or health crises, it has caused and still causes, have had lasting consequences and have required adaptation from each and every one of us to. TRIAL International, for its part, has tirelessly pursued its mission of seeking justice for victims and survivors of international crimes and its fight against impunity for those who commit them. Despite the new challenges that our organization has had to face over the past two years, we are convinced that the quest for justice and the fight against impunity knows neither borders nor time barriers. Neither does the commitment to the cause. At the beginning of this year, we wanted to share with you the illustration of how the work of the organization is timeless and goes beyond geographical borders.
On February 2, 1982, 40 years ago today, the destruction of the city of Hama in Syria began. Suspected of being involved in this massacre which killed between 10,000 and 40,000 people in one month, Rifaat al-Assad was the subject of a criminal report filed by TRIAL International in Switzerland in 2013. In June 2020, Rifaat al-Assad, the uncle of the current Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, was sentenced by French Courts in first instance to a four-year prison term. The French authorities also confiscated several of his properties. Attempting to escape French justice, the defendant managed to leave French territory in secret and return to Damascus on Thursday, October 7, 2021. This escape compromises not only the execution of his sentence, but also the legal procedure opened against him in Switzerland for war crimes. In February 2021, TRIAL International hosted a webinar on this case. We recommend watching it or re-watching it, as it very clearly illustrates TRIAL International's involvement in the fight against impunity, beyond borders and time limits.
At the start of 2022, two other cases can be cited as very good examples of TRIAL International's commitment. First, Slobodan Curcic, accused of committing war crimes 29 years ago in Foca, Bosnia and Herzegovina, was arrested and charged in Montenegro. Secondly, Ousman Sonko, accused of crimes against humanity committed in The Gambia and who has been imprisoned in Switzerland for five years, must face new charges before the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC), which points towards his involvement in the brutal repression that characterized the regime of former dictator Yahya Jammeh.
These developments in the various cases in the field prove the importance and effectiveness of TRIAL international's commitment to victims as well as in tracking down those responsible for international crimes.
We wish you a good read and would also like to thank you for your continued support!
The TRIAL International team
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