A nonprofit chief who uncovered injustices in Syria with highly effective investigations was killed within the February 6 earthquake in Turkey along with his household, the group stated Sunday.
“It’s with the deepest sorrow that we announce the dying of our Deputy Chief of the Syria Investigations Unit, Mustafa, and his household,” the Commission for International Justice and Accountability (CIJA) stated in an announcement.
“Mustafa, his spouse Rola, their lovely youngsters Tala, Hanin, Mays and Omar all perished within the devastating earthquake that struck North-Western Syria and Turkey on 06 February 2023,” the assertion stated.
“Mustafa was from Ar Rastan, Homs which is the place his investigative journey started. A skilled lawyer, he was a extremely expert worldwide crimes investigator who secured huge troves of proof inside Syria,” the assertion stated.
“Over the past twelve years he has made invaluable contributions to the hunt for fact and justice about atrocities towards the Syrian folks. Not least to the case of (Marie) Colvin v Syrian Arab Republic, which established the reality in regards to the brutal marketing campaign of sniping and shelling of the folks of Homs in 2012,” the assertion added.
CIJA Director for Administration and Exterior Relations Nerma Jelacic stated she met with Mustafa in Turkey final week “to plan a brand new future for his household, a future during which his huge work on Syria investigations could be publicly acknowledged.”
“He has carried out a lot … He was a terrific investigator however his soul by no means hardened by the years. He remained the softest, friendliest individual you possibly can think about,” Jelacic informed CNN.
Highly effective work: Mustafa and his staff, generally generally known as the “document hunters,” have labored to carry Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime accountable for heinous crimes. Syrian officers have repeatedly denied allegations of warfare crimes and crimes towards humanity, insisting that they aim terrorists and never peaceable protesters.
The staff, skilled by former warfare crimes investigators and legal professionals, smuggled a whole bunch of hundreds of presidency paperwork out of warfare zones. Typically sprinting previous explosions and sniper hearth to carry the papers to security, they threat their lives to assist maintain the perpetrators of warfare crimes accountable.
CNN was granted entry in 2019 by CIJA to witness firsthand how over 800,000 pages of regime paperwork have been smuggled out of Syria for the reason that begin of the battle in 2011.
Since 2012, CIJA has sought to make sure that proof of alleged warfare crimes in Syria is compiled and preserved for future trials.
About CIJA: A nonprofit group funded by Western governments, CIJA has acquired over 800,000 Syrian intelligence and safety paperwork. Through the years, it has used these papers to construct circumstances towards senior and former officers implicated in a number of the regime’s most brutal human rights abuses.
