FBI investigates to hold Syrian top officials accountable for war crimes
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – TheUnited States Department of Justice is investigating the killing of a US humanitarian worker in Syria in 2016 by top officials of the Syrian government, the New York Times reported recently, citing people with knowledge of the inquiry.
The New York Times said, in a detailed report, that Federal Bureau of Investigation (FFI) agents traveled to Europe and the Middle East to collect evidences and interview potential witnesses. Federal prosecutors convened a grand jury, which has been hearing evidence.
Human rights workers and politicians were outraged when the US government stayed silent about the death of the aid worker, Layla Shweikani, 26, according to the source.
The inquiry aims to hold top Syrian officials accountable for a ruthless system of detention and torture that has flourished under al-Assad, including Jamil Hassan, head of the Air Force Intelligence Directorate when Shweikani disappeared, and Ali Mamlouk, head of Syria’s National Security Bureau intelligence service.
Already, the US has imposed sanctions on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his inner circle, including Mamlouk and Hassan, over abuses including violence against civilians.
As a child, Shweikani relocated in 2015 from suburban Chicago to Damascus to join a network of humanitarian relief workers. But al-Assad tightly controls all aid efforts in his country and accused them of terrorism.
By the time the authorities detained Shweikani in February 2016, and almost every member of her relief group had been taken into Syrian custody.
She spent about a year in Syrian government-run prisons where cramped conditions, illness and torture run rampant, the source added.
Syrian guards tortured Shweikani and vowed to kill her loved ones, witnesses would later tell Justice Department investigators.
The guards eventually forced her to falsely confess to crimes of terrorism, and she was tried and executed, according to the witnesses.