UN investigative body hopes to send team to Syria to secure evidence

17/12/2024 19:20

The head of a U.N. investigative body has written to Syria's new authorities to express a willingness to engage with them and to travel to Syria to secure evidence that could implicate top officials of the former government, he said on Tuesday.



Rebels swept President Bashar al-Assad from power this month, flinging open prisons and government offices and raising fresh hopes for accountability for crimes committed during Syria's more than 13-year civil war.



"Our first priority would be to go and try and scope the extent of the issue, see exactly what is available in terms of access and potential evidence, and then see how we could best assist in preserving that," Robert Petit, head of the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism (IIIM), told a Geneva press briefing.



"There is now the possibility of accessing evidence of the highest level of (the) regime," he added.