With Compelling Evidence: Syrian Victims Confront Their Tormentors at Paris Olympics

Syrian victims and their relatives abroad who have been tortured or lost their children continue to provide their testimonies regarding war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Bashar al-Assad regime leaders and officials. 

These testimonies contribute to documenting the crimes that occurred following the outbreak of the Syrian revolution in March 2011 and presenting evidence against those involved to local and international human rights organizations, aiming to identify perpetrators and prevent them from escaping accountability and punishment. 

It has been proven that some implicated individuals from the Assad regime in crimes against Syrians still move freely and even travel within European Union countries, including some who intend to participate in the Paris Olympics scheduled from July 26 to August 11, 2024.

Tracking Down Perpetrators

New revelations confirmed that the National Union of Syrian Students at Damascus University committed acts of arrest, torture, and gender-based violence during the early years of the Syrian revolution. 

According to a report issued by the Syrian British Consortium, which resulted from a year-long investigation, the Student Union at Damascus University committed crimes violating international law between 2011 and 2013, reportedly operating as a branch of the regime's State Security Apparatus at the university.

The report, published on June 20, 2024, based on open-source research and witness testimonies, including 20 in-depth interviews with former students and professors, revealed that the Student Union conducted patrols on the university campus, in lecture halls, and student residences, aiming to report potential dissent among students, professors, and staff.

Members of the Union would subsequently detain dissenting students, often subjecting them to physical torture on campus, before handing them over to security forces, who were supposed to forcibly take the students to prisons.

During the first three years of the revolution, more than 35,000 students were reportedly arrested across Syria, according to the report citing statistics from the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR).

Of note, a member of this Union, which transformed into a mini intelligence agency tracking university students following the revolution, is preparing to participate in the 2024 Paris Olympics.

The report mentioned testimony regarding a figure who worked in the National Union of Syrian Students, Omar Aroub, who currently serves as the head of the Syrian Paralympic Committee under the Assad regime.

Media sources indicated that Aroub will lead the Syrian sports delegation to the Paris Olympics.

In mid-December 2023, Syrian equestrian Amre Hamsho qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics after earning the necessary points for qualification within Syria's joined group as per the International Equestrian Federation rankings.

Hamsho's qualification followed his performance at the Saudi Arabia Show Jumping Championship, where he secured second place.

A report by the Syrian British Consortium shed light on the role of the Student Union in suppressing university students involved in the revolution.

The report highlighted the case of Ayham Ghazoul, a master's student in dentistry at Damascus University, who suffered severe torture on campus in November 2012 at the hands of Union members. 

He was beaten with an iron rod, had his nails pulled out, scalded with boiling water, and subsequently transferred to the Air Force Intelligence where he died under torture in its prisons.

Former Damascus University student Noor al-Tall confirmed her detention and beating by the Union before being handed over to State Security Apparatus.

In her testimony to the Syrian British Consortium, Noor stated that the university was supposed to be a step towards the future, a place to write students stories, and meet lifelong friends, but it turned into a nightmare. She said she was detained by the Student Union and physically assaulted.

"I was detained by the NUSS and physically assaulted. I'm now in Europe with my family and thought I would be far from war criminals here but now a NUSS official will be part of the Paris 2024 Olympics. He is being welcomed as if he has committed no crime," Noor Aftar, a former student, told the investigators.

"It is as if the regime is saying 'Look at us, we committed crimes against you and we are still committing crimes against other Syrians, but the world approves of us and even allows us to be here at the Olympics’”, she stated, “we ask that France and the Olympic committee stand up for human rights and ban war criminals from the Olympics.”

The report referenced the official mentioned in the testimony as Omar Aroub, a former senior member of the Union's Aleppo leadership accused of overseeing violations, recruiting students to suppress protests, arming them, and instructing them to throw opposing female students from fourth-floor windows.

Aroub currently serves as the Deputy Head of the Syrian General Sports Federation and the President of the Syrian Paralympic Committee.

Criminal in the Olympics

Commenting on Aroub's participation in the Paris Olympics, the Syrian British Consortium report stated that it seems as if the regime is saying: Look, we have committed crimes against you and continue to commit crimes against other Syrians, but the world agrees with us and allows us to be here at the Olympics, and when the games end, we will return to Syria to commit more crimes.

Despite French Interior Minister Gabriel Attal's call to the Olympic Committee to "defend human rights and prevent war criminals from participating in the Olympic Games," Aroub remains the Deputy Head of the Syrian General Sports Federation and the President of the National Paralympic Committee within the General Sports Federation, the highest sports authority in Syria.

Aroub is accused of involvement in crimes during his tenure at the National Union of Syrian Students, where he served as a member of the Aleppo branch leadership from 2000 to 2010, subsequently becoming its head and a member of the Executive Bureau until 2019. He is also the deputy commander of the armed "Ba'ath Battalions" faction established by the Assad regime during the uprising to suppress it.

Despite the current use of the Syrian Student Union as a tool to polish and improve the image of the Syrian regime abroad, Aroub, also the deputy commander of the "Ba'ath Battalions" militia accused of war crimes, previously visited Paris at the end of August 2023, hosted as the President of the National Paralympic Committee of Syria.

Omar Aroub, a close associate of the Syrian regime's leadership, posted a photo on his Facebook account on August 31, 2023, posing in front of the Eiffel Tower.

There are also photos of him armed and wearing military attire with the insignia of the "Ba'ath Battalions" militia visible.

Former associates of Aroub have confirmed his role in suppressing anti-regime protests in Aleppo in 2011.

In addition to family photos of the ruling elite that Aroub shares on his Facebook account, an official photo from 2019 shows him alongside the Syrian regime's president.

Despite all this evidence of his involvement in Syrian bloodshed, he will participate for the second time in the Olympic Games in Paris, having previously represented Syria in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.

However, the testimony and statements of victims and their families have led to the prosecution of several Assad regime officials in European courts, whether in person or in absentia.

This demonstrates that human rights organizations, through the testimony of victims, have succeeded in pushing several figures of the Assad regime to trial before the world.

In a recent development, on May 25, 2024, the French judiciary sentenced National Security Affairs Advisor to the Syrian regime, General Ali Mamlouk, former Air Force Intelligence Director General Jamil Hassan, and former Investigation Branch Head General Abdul-Salam Mahmoud to life imprisonment in absentia for committing crimes against humanity, including the torture and murder of a French citizen and his son in regime prisons.

Bravery of the Victims 

For this reason, the testimonies of victims play a significant role in the path to accountability and ensuring that perpetrators do not escape justice, according to legal experts.

Particularly, members of the Syrian regime are currently being pursued judicially in several countries, notably Germany, France, Sweden, and the Netherlands, where the principle of universal jurisdiction allows for the prosecution of those who commit the most serious crimes against foreign nationals outside the state's territory.

As a result, victims of the Assad regime and human rights lawyers focus their efforts on countries that accept universal jurisdiction, pursuing perpetrators and bringing them to trial.

The crucial point in these trials in Europe, as described by lawyers, is the bravery of the victims and their determination to pursue justice against those who committed atrocities against Syrians during the revolution, focusing on the core principle of justice against those who perpetrated crimes.

In recent years, victims’ efforts have been monumental in amplifying their voices in local courts and presenting comprehensive evidence to substantiate the war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated by the Assad regime.

Among the most notable efforts was the testimony of Syrian detainees in October 2023 before the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, the second destination after Germany for asylum seekers. 

These testimonies detailed mass rape operations, mutilations, and a "uniform" punishment method involving placing individuals in a car frame and brutally beating them by members of the Syrian regime's agencies during the suppression of the revolution.

The determination of refugee victims to pursue those involved in crimes against Syrians led to the prosecution of several Assad regime officers after sufficient evidence was gathered and presented to courts in European countries, thanks to significant collaboration between Syrian and international legal teams.

In an unexpected trial, in January 2022, the Koblenz court in western Germany sentenced former Syrian intelligence colonel Anwar Raslan (58 years old) to life imprisonment for committing crimes against humanity during the crackdown on protesters. This marked the world's first trial for violations committed by officials in the Syrian regime following the revolution.

At that time, those who led Anwar Raslan, responsible for notorious tasks in the security branch of Khatib in Damascus, to the dock and subsequently secured a historic verdict were the victims themselves.

Lina Mohammad, who testified about her detention in 2012 in the branch where Raslan was in charge, said, "My question is: Is this the justice we seek? Honestly, the justice I seek involves the trial of Bashar al-Assad himself and his accomplices who continue to commit horrific crimes."

Similarly, Waseem Maqdad, who was arrested four times at the beginning of the revolution and was investigated by Raslan himself, stated, "This represents the beginning of the long road towards justice in Syria."

On November 14, 2023, a French court issued an international arrest warrant against Assad, following the findings of using prohibited chemical weapons against civilians in Duma and Eastern Ghouta in 2013, resulting in the deaths of over 1,000 people. Survivors of chemical weapon attacks in Syria in 2013 contributed to filing criminal lawsuits against regime officials before the French judiciary.

In January 2023, Abada Mzaik, an American citizen also holding Syrian nationality, filed a lawsuit against the Assad regime before a U.S. court, claiming he was tortured in Syria in 2012. Mzaik described his ordeal during his brief detention at the notorious Military Mezzeh Airport Prison saying that the Syrian agents started beating and torturing him, hanging him by his neck. They nearly killed him before taking him down to the basement where a reception party awaited him. There, they stripped him naked, searched him, and then beat and tortured him with whips.

Since the initial reception was not as violent as they wished, they repeated it for him, making him lie down and lifting his legs, continuing to beat his feet until they swelled, making it impossible for him to stand on them. That was the reception they held for him ten days after his arrest, according to his statements.

According to the Syrian Network for Human Rights, Mzaik is one individual among approximately 135,000 people still arbitrarily detained in Syrian regime prisons. The network's database includes details such as their names, dates of arrest, arresting authorities, and other pertinent information.

In a statement in April 2023, the network asserted that these individuals are subjected to brutal torture. It has documented the deaths of approximately 15,038 Syrian citizens under torture, including 94 women and 190 children, and confirmed that the torture practiced by the Syrian regime constitutes crimes against humanity.

Syrian Human Rights networks affirm that over half a million citizens have been killed by torture or aerial and artillery bombardment by the Assad regime since 2011.

The military machine of the Assad regime displaced 13 million Syrians from their cities, with six and a half million fleeing abroad, out of a population of 23 million.