The Long Road to Accountability in Syria Runs Through Germany

In “The Long Road to Accountability in Syria Runs through Germany,” Amos will draw on a decade of investigative reporting on the implications of the first Syrian accountability trial. In April 2020, despite the pandemic, the first trial on state torture in Syria began at the Higher Regional Court in Koblenz. German prosecutors brought the case using the principal of universal jurisdiction, which permits national courts to investigate and prosecute war crimes that have been committed abroad by foreign nationals – in this case, against officials from a government still in power, which probes the meaning of accountability in the ongoing conflict. “This significant legal effort may eventually change the way that war criminals are prosecuted,” Amos writes. The Koblenz trial comes at a juncture when UN backed international tribunals are stalled because of conflicting political interests at the Security Council. Russia and China, both allies of Bashar al-Assad, have blocked any attempt to launch an international hearing. A semester in Berlin will provide Amos the opportunity to gather interviews with the Syrian exile population in Germany, legal scholars and lawyers working on the case, journalists, and other experts. Amos also intends to explore how Germans are responding to the trial. As Syrians testify about a war that destroyed their country and the torture chambers that forced so many to flee, does this official account add to German acceptance of the Syrian refugees who fled to Germany in search of a safe haven?