An inquiry team of forensic and legal experts, including a Syracuse University College of Law professor, has determined there is credible evidence that shows the Syrian government committed war crimes against many of its citizens.

SU law professor David Crane, along with two other prosecutors and three forensic specialists, were asked to look at the credibility of an individual who produced photos depicting detainees who were tortured and killed, as well as determine the validity of the photos themselves.

“The world is now seeing for the first time clear and convincing credible evidence that president Assad is killing his own people in a calculated way,” Crane said.

Crane began working on the Syrian conflict in March 2011 when the civil war began. He put together a group of students to form a case against President Bashar al-Assad and his men, but he said the project has since grown into a case neutrally investigating all parties committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.

He said the project involves mapping the Syrian conflict, building a crime-based matrix of incidents that have taken place each day and drafting sample indictments of individuals who have committed war crimes.

Crane said data was gathered through blogs, news organizations, credible people in Syria and social networks. He said social networking was a tremendous asset when collecting information.

According to the team’s report, a Syrian defector codenamed “Caesar” photographed bodies that showed signs of starvation, beatings and other forms of torture and killings. He then smuggled the photos out of the country.

The inquiry team interviewed defector on the 12th, 13th and 18th of Jan. 2014. According to the report, he was employed by the military police. “Caesar” told the team that it became routine to take photographs of detainees who had been tortured and killed.

Crane said after verifying that the person who took the photos was a credible source, the group began looking at the photos. He said there were more than 55,000 images total. The team had access to about 24,000 of those pictures, looked at 6,000 of them and “stripped down 150 to the bare minimum” to determine their credibility.

“We went in open-minded but skeptical and we came away convinced that this evidence is both credible and reliable and the individual is credible,” Crane said.

He said the evidence the group saw included photographs of detainees from three different detention facilities that had been tortured, starved, beaten, mutilated and killed by the Assad regime in a systematic and industrial way.

“It was a manor not seen since the holocaust in World War II,” Crane said. “It was a killing machine.”

Stuart Hamilton was a forensic pathologist on the inquiry team. He said in an email that a digital forensic expert confirmed the images weren’t photoshopped. Hamilton then looked at the photos from the point of view of an expert in injuries. He said he identified evidence of starvation, abuse, restraint and homicide.

Moving forward, Crane and Hamilton both said the next step is up to politicians and diplomats. However, they both agreed that citizens outside of Syria, including SU students, should take note of the new evidence.

Crane said it’s important for students to be mindful of the Syrian conflict, saying that by being conscious of the world around them they can make small steps that make the world a better place.

“I think Syracuse University students can do a great deal by just being aware and talking about what’s going on in Syria,” Crane said.

Hamilton added that although most people won’t be affected by the war crimes in Syria, they should still take notice.

“To the average person, this makes no difference to his or her daily life,” Hamilton said. “But should the average person care that hideous things are being done to average people in another country? I would say yes.”

Published on January 22, 2014 at 2:47 am

Contact Brett: blsamuel@syr.edu | @Brett_Samuels27