There has been a surge in arrests of criminals from the former regime, particularly pillars of its military forces and figures within its security apparatus. These arrests have been made on the basis of their involvement in vicious crimes: arbitrary arrests, torture, killings, forced disappearances, and other horrors that are difficult even to imagine, especially those committed by members of the military medical service, including doctors, technicians, and administrators. One would assume that such people would be the last to become involved in these criminal networks, yet they added another layer of human rights violations through the desecration of corpses as they oversaw the trade in human organs.
Following the habits of my profession, I tracked the names of those being arrested, along with the positions they held within the structures of the regime’s army and security services and the roles they played in these crimes. I was also searching for specific names of people I knew personally or had encountered during my decades of contact with the regime as both a journalist and an opposition figure. Many of them had caused me great harm, as they did countless other Syrians. Among the most painful of these experiences was the second arrest of my son, Wissam, in 2013, which ended with his death under torture in Branch 215 of the Syrian Military Intelligence Directorate.
Many of the officers whose names I followed were unfamiliar figures, which is natural since the majority of intelligence officers in Syria lived in the shadows, without photographs, public identities, or contact except when absolutely necessary. The primary reason for this was to conceal their identities and suppress any information that could expose them and reveal the crimes and dark deeds they committed, acts they never wished to be associated with publicly. Under both Hafez al-Assad and Bashar al-Assad, the regime was steeped in crimes committed by its officials, especially officers from the army and security services, crimes that the world came to know extensively through the Syrian revolution and the sacrifices Syrians made to overthrow the regime.
Branch 215 is known as the “Branch of Death” because of the immense number of detainees who died in its custody. Deaths increased either as a result of torture or because of the appalling health and living conditions there, which led to deadly diseases such as tuberculosis and hepatitis. According to testimonies from dozens of former detainees interviewed after their release, prisoners suffering from such illnesses were denied access to treatment. Former inmates estimated that dozens died there every day. The Caesar photographs alone show that 3,532 victims came from this branch.
We continue to await the arrest of other implicated officers and hope the security forces will succeed in apprehending them so that they may be punished for what they did to their people. They must be brought before the judiciary and tried for their crimes, not out of revenge, but in the name of justice. Accountability is necessary to signal that what happened in Syria must never be repeated there or anywhere else. Moreover, holding criminals accountable constitutes an essential step in transitional justice, a principle supported not only by the overwhelming majority of Syrians, but also one that represents a point of international consensus enshrined in United Nations resolutions concerning Syria, most notably United Nations Security Council Resolution 2254. That resolution outlined the framework for transitional justice, particularly emphasizing accountability for all those who committed crimes against Syrians, uncovering the fate of the disappeared, strengthening civil peace, repairing harm, and compensating victims, steps necessary for normalizing Syrian life and rebuilding Syria.
This matter now requires faster steps from the Syrian government toward completing the urgent and essential pillars of transitional justice and strengthening Syrians’ hopes of overcoming the legacy of the Assad regime and moving toward a better life. That is the aim and aspiration of most Syrians, if not all.
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