00:00The transition should not only change who governs Syria, it should transform how power is exercised.
00:06This is what streets across Syria looked like after a Damascus court sentenced ousted
00:11dictator Rashal Assad and several of his former officials to death for atrocities committed
00:16during Syria's civil war. Only one of the individuals convicted was actually present
00:20before the judges, while Assad and many of his accomplices are in exile overseas.
00:25But outside the court, people still celebrate it.
00:42Marianne Kakutli is a Syrian legal investigator and has worked in cases related to Syria since 2020.
00:48Seeing a Syrian court say that even the person who stood at the very top of the state
00:55can be held accountable under Syrian law. For families who spent 15 years asking simply
01:01for recognition of what happened to them, that has an enormous symbolic significance.
01:07But it's only been one and a half years since the civil war ended. More than half a million people
01:12are known to have been killed and some analysts say the trial might be a rushed response to the
01:16atrocities. Karkutli says transitional justice is key in this process. It refers to how a society
01:23deals with major atrocities in its past in order to create a better future. Currently,
01:29a transitional justice law is being drafted in Syria.
01:32Had we waited a bit until this law was adapted and had we waited a bit until we
01:37looked at these crimes from that principle, we could have achieved at least something closer to
01:43what these crimes speak to which is international core crimes. Crimes that shouldn't be possible in
01:49the future Syria. The real test starts after the judgment. Will Syria build independent courts?
01:55Will victims participate meaningfully? Will survivors be protected? Will the disappeared be found?
02:02Will evidence and archives be preserved? Will defendants receive fair trials? Will victims receive
02:09preparations? And perhaps most importantly, will the same legal principles apply when the alleged
02:15perpetrators belong to the current authorities or to another armed actor?
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