‘There is enough evidence to convict Assad of war crimes but no prosecutor’
Geneva — A UN commission investigating Syrian rights abuses has gathered enough evidence to convict President Bashar al-Assad of war crimes, an outgoing member of the commission said in interviews published on Sunday. Veteran former war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte, who is preparing to step down after five years serving in the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria, told Swiss media the evidence against Assad was sufficient to secure a war crimes conviction. "I am convinced of that," she told Le Matin Dimanche and the Sonntagszeitung weeklies, adding though that with no international court or prosecutor tasked with trying the Syrian war crimes cases, justice would remain elusive. "That is why the situation is so frustrating. The preparatory work has been done, but nevertheless, there is no prosecutor and no court," she told Sonntagszeitung. "It’s a tragedy." Del Ponte, a Swiss national who came to prominence investigating war crimes in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, made the shoc...
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