UK judge finds former Syrian officer unfit for landmark humanity trial

A London judge ruled on July 3 that Salem Al-Salem, the 58-year-old former Syrian officer facing seven atrocity charges, was unfit to stand trial, stopping a landmark case before it could reach a full criminal hearing. The decision leaves open no ordinary verdict on allegations tied to killings and torture during Syria’s 2011 crackdown on pro-democracy protests.

The Crown Prosecution Service announced the charges on March 9, saying Al-Salem faced three counts of murder as crimes against humanity, three counts of torture and one count of conduct ancillary to murder. Prosecutors allege that, as a colonel in Syria’s Air Force Intelligence department, he led a group tasked with suppressing demonstrations in Damascus suburbs including Jobar, where civilians were targeted during the uprising against Bashar al-Assad.

Al-Salem, who now lives in the United Kingdom, appeared by video link at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on March 10. He was assisted by an interpreter and did not enter a plea at that stage. Reporting from the hearing said he was wearing an oxygen mask and breathing tube because of motor neuron disease, and was slumped in an armchair while proceedings continued without him being required to state his name.

The case had already been treated as exceptional in British courts. It was described as the first prosecution of its kind in the UK under the International Criminal Court Act 2001, a statute used for international crimes including war crimes and crimes against humanity. After the magistrates’ court hearing, the proceedings were sent on to the Central Criminal Court at the Old Bailey in London.

The ruling on fitness to plead now halts the path to a conventional trial over alleged attacks on civilians in 2011, more than a decade after the events prosecutors say occurred in Damascus and its suburbs. For survivors and witnesses linked to Jobar and other affected areas, the case still fixes the allegations in the public record, but it also shows how age, illness and the passage of time can prevent atrocity claims from ever being tested before a jury.