Petty: The Best Solution For Justice Is What Syrians Themselves Decide

Geneva (ST) The head of the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism to Investigate Serious Crimes in Syria, Robert Petty, stressed that the best solution for justice regarding the crimes committed by the former regime in Syria is the one decided by the Syrians themselves.

“For the first time since eight years, we have had the opportunity to truly fulfill our mandate,” he said noting that the main purpose of his visit to Syria was to “begin diplomatic engagement, explain the role to the new authorities and obtain permission to carry out tasks and we found them receptive to this matter, Petty said in a statement.

Petty pointed out that since the outbreak of the Syrian revolution in March 2011, Syrian civil society and Syrians in general have been the best documenters of their victims, as they have collected a lot of evidence of the crimes committed by the former regime.

He continued: “Now we have access to a huge amount of new evidence of those crimes, and we hope to be able to exploit this opportunity very soon”.