"Syria's Lost Souls" reveals a long-running conflict, full of pitfalls, oscillating between hopes and disappointments, between the unlimited time of justice and short political and media memory, between intimate stories and international institutions, and at its heart lie the complex issues related to legal proceedings against Syrian war criminals, whose obstacles begin with Syria's non-ratification of the Rome Statute and do not end with preventing the veto power of Syria's allies and the Security Council from requesting the International Criminal Court.
With this introduction, the French website "OrientXXI" opened a screening to discuss the documentary "Syria's Lost Souls" by Stéphane Malteri and Garance Lukin, which has been in theaters since May 21, 2023, and was presented for discussion in front of Clemence Bectart, lawyer of the Dabbagh family and the International Federation for Human Rights, and Ziad Majed, French-Lebanese political scientist, professor and director of the Middle East Studies Program at the American University of Paris.
The principle of universal jurisdiction adopted by a few national legislations could replace international criminal justice to make it possible to prosecute crimes against humanity committed in Syria, especially by supporting the international, impartial and independent mechanism dedicated to Syria for national commissions of inquiry.
Because of the desire of international organizations to shed light on these crimes, the organizations have developed circumvention strategies and have already filed complaints in Spain, France and Germany in the wake of the Caesar Affair, tracking violations in the texts governing universal jurisdiction.
Political and judicial silence
This film follows the individual paths, especially the courage and perseverance of those who embark on the search for justice and truth, and those plaintiffs, witnesses, experts and lawyers who progress together, and sometimes touch these legal issues on a zigzag path, such as Obeida Al-Dabbagh, who wants to prosecute those responsible for the disappearance of his brother and nephew Mazen in France, and Amal, who is trying in Spain to shed light on the death of her brother Abdul in regime prisons, after identifying his picture in the Caesar file, and others.
The film follows the violent Syrian death machine and the terrible silence that accompanies civil society's attempts to bring those responsible to justice, as lawyers and activists risk putting the disappeared at risk if they are still alive, and threatening their loved ones, especially as some complaints are rejected by courts that declare them incompetent.
Combating impunity
The writer pointed to what activists considered a historic decision and very good news, when the investigative judges ordered the conviction of Syrian war criminals before the Criminal Court in Paris, especially with the French restrictions on universal jurisdiction and its satisfaction with those close to the Syrian regime, but the Court of Cassation then canceled the indictment against "Abdul Hamid J.", who was arrested as part of the investigation into the Caesar file, and the French courts were considered incompetent on the basis of the principle of double criminality, which is a restriction on Universal jurisdiction of French law.
The film recalls that the results would not have been possible without the courage and determination of the Syrian men and women who agreed to testify before the French courts to tell the horrific truth about the crimes committed in Bashar al-Assad's prisons.
This film may one day serve as an archive of political silence and institutional and legal obstacles that victims and civil organizations involved in fighting the Syrian regime's impunity will overcome, even though thousands of people still disappear in Bashar al-Assad's prisons.