Carter-Ruck’s accusations against Syria

British law firm Carter-Ruck isued a report, on 20 January 2014, accusing the "current Syrian regime" (sic) of war crimes and crimes against humanity, in other words two day before the opening of the Geneva 2 Peace Conference.

The firm hired three former international prosecutors - the very Honourable Sir Desmond Lorenz de Silva, Professor Sir Geoffrey Nice and Professor David M. Crane - to examine "Cesar"’s testimony and the pieces of evidence provided by him.

Sir Desmond Lorenz de Silva is the author of a report commissioned by the Prime Minister on the death of an Irish lawyer, which the victim’s family regarded as a "sham." He recognized the responsibility of the authorities, too flagrant to be denied, but sidestepped the evidence incriminating the leaders at the top. Sir Geoffrey Nice gained renown as Slobodan Milošević’s prosecutor for two years, without ever pinpointing the slightest shred of evidence of crimes against humanity. The trial abruptly ended with the death of the detainee. As for David Mr. Crane, he is a former CIA and DIA (Defence Intelligence Agency) official who, since the beginning of the war against Syria, has been in charge of a program to bring Bashar el-Assad before a special international court.

"Cesar" claims to be a Syrian military police officer, normally tasked with photographing a crime scene. He affirms having taken pictures inside military hospital morgues of the current regime’s victims. He reportedly defected at the end of 2013. He handed the Carter-Ruck sollicitors over 55 000 photographs, representing 11 000 corpses, which he declares having taken himself.

On this basis, and without being able to verify the origin of the documents, nor the identify of the people they show, the firm concluded that food deprivation and torture had systematically been inflicted by the "regime" on the "people [it supposedly] incarcerated."

The Carter-Ruck firm stamped "Confidential" twice on every page of its public report.

"Cesar" fails to explain why the current Syrian regime would systematically park it’s victims in a morgue and allow him to photograph them.

One can only be dismayed by Carter-Ruck’s imputations. Indeed, there is no centralization of legal matters in Syria. It is even impossible for the Syrian Army to state the exact number of jihadists it has eliminated (the official estimates range from a factor of 1 to 4). It is thus equally impossible for a military police officer to take pictures of 11 000 corpses on his own.

The Carter-Ruck firm has admitted working for Qatar which, by calling on it, hopes not to have to answer for numerous propaganda operations invented by Al-Jazeera.

More especially, the Carter-Ruck firm has released to the public only 10 of the 55 000 photographs described by "Cesar."