Ziad Mahmoud al-Amayiri sat with images of his 10 misplaced relations specified by entrance of him.
“There are two choices: both the federal government provides me justice, or I take justice myself.”
Al-Amayiri’s risk is directed at one man: Fadi Saqr.
Saqr was a commander of the Nationwide Defence Forces (NDF), a militia loyal to Bashar al-Assad that was accused of atrocities just like the 2013 Tadamon bloodbath, the place, in line with native Syrian officers, activists and leaked movies, dozens of individuals had been led to a pit and shot.
Nevertheless, Saqr denies any hyperlinks to what occurred in Tadamon. He advised The New York Occasions that he was not the NDF’s chief on the time.
However al-Amayiri insists Saqr needs to be behind bars for the disappearance of his family members, who he says had been arrested by NDF fighters in 2013.
As a substitute, Saqr is strolling free.
Hassan Soufan, a member of the government-appointed Committee for Civil Peace, says Saqr was “granted protected passage” by Syria’s new management “at the start of the liberation”.
Soufan stated Saqr’s launch was a part of a method to calm tensions due to his hyperlinks to Alawite teams within the area.
“Nobody can deny that this protected passage contributed to averting bloodshed,” stated Soufan.
However that was not sufficient to fulfill many Syrians, particularly in Tadamon, the place residents demanded that Saqr be tried in court docket.
“How was the federal government capable of forgive Fadi Saqr with the blood of our households?” stated al-Amayiri, talking of the ten family members he has misplaced.
“I don’t suppose they are going to be capable to maintain him accountable after that.”
Syria’s fragile peace
A yr on for the reason that fall of Bashar al-Assad, Syria’s new management is coping with the very actual hazard of individuals feeling annoyed by justice efforts being delayed or denied.
After taking energy, interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa stated he would prioritise “attaining civil peace” and “prosecuting criminals who spilt Syrian blood … by real transitional justice”.
However the final yr has been marked by sectarian combating – and there was a marked rise in so-called revenge killings.
As of November 2025, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that 1,301 individuals had died in what it described as “retaliatory actions” for the reason that fall of the Assad regime in December 2024.
These statistics don’t embody the individuals killed throughout the violent clashes on both the Syrian coast in March or in Suwayda in July.
The coastal massacres alone resulted within the loss of life of 1,400 individuals, primarily civilians, in line with a United Nations report.
The clashes in Suwayda, triggered by combating between Druze and Bedouin communities, killed a whole lot, nearly all of them Druze.
In his first interview with an English-language outlet, Abdel Basit Abdel Latif, head of the Nationwide Fee for Transitional Justice, acknowledged the dangers of stalled justice.
“It’s sure that any Syrian citizen will really feel that if the transitional justice course of doesn’t begin correctly, they are going to resort to their very own methods, which is one thing we don’t want for,” Abdel Latif stated.
Ibrahim al-Assil from the Atlantic Council says it’s an instance of a conundrum usually seen in transitional justice: pursuing justice versus holding the peace.
“Which one comes first? It’s essential to grasp that they do have to work hand in hand, however issues are by no means preferrred.”
Transitional justice in Syria
The federal government has arrange two our bodies to supervise transitional justice.
One, headed by Abdel Latif, tackles transitional justice extra broadly, addressing violations dedicated by the previous regime.
The opposite is targeted on investigating the estimated 300,000 Syrians thought-about lacking and broadly believed to have disappeared into al-Assad’s infamous jail system and buried in mass graves.
Whereas the dimensions of the lacking is usually reported as greater than 100,000 individuals, the top of the Nationwide Fee on Lacking Individuals believes it’s roughly 300,000.
Ever for the reason that fall, there have been considerations that this quantity is rising, with UN Human Rights spokesperson Thameen al-Kheetan saying they “proceed to obtain worrying studies about dozens of abductions and enforced disappearances”.
Each nationwide committees have met worldwide specialists to attract classes from different transitional justice processes.
However Danny al-Baaj, vice chairman for advocacy and public relations on the Syrian Discussion board, believes “we’re far behind any actual progress”.
“A framework remains to be lacking. A particular regulation on transitional justice remains to be lacking,” he stated.
The households of the a whole lot of 1000’s of forcibly disappeared Syrians are additionally demanding solutions.
Wafa Ali Mustafa is a Syrian activist whose father, Ali Mustafa, was arrested within the capital, Damascus, 12 years in the past.
“Households of the detainees are usually not occurring the streets daily saying that now you need to dig mass graves,” she stated.
“They’re saying not less than talk with us, not less than tell us what you might be doing.”
The pinnacle of the Nationwide Fee on Lacking Individuals, Mohammad Reda Jalkhi, defined that Syria wants an enormous quantity of assets.
“We have to do very onerous work on constructing capability, making ready the infrastructure, amassing information, analysing information, and equipping laboratories,” Jalkhi stated.
“All this doesn’t occur in a single day.”
The federal government has made dozens of arrests, together with individuals linked to the previous regime.
It has been posting shiny movies on social media of jail guards making confessions and suspects showing earlier than judges.
However questions stay about transparency.
“In fact, each time they arrest somebody, individuals get very, very completely happy and grateful,” Wafa added.
“Sadly, we don’t actually know what’s occurring to those individuals, we don’t know the place they’re being held, we don’t know what sort of investigation they’re being uncovered to.”
There’s additionally ambiguity round arrests of safety and army personnel who had been linked to sectarian violence in Suwayda earlier this yr, which killed a whole lot of individuals.
However the lead investigator of the Suwayda killings declined to say what number of.
“My drawback with the mass arrests,” stated al-Baaj, “is that it’s not in line with a plan.”
“We don’t know the way the federal government is doing its work.”
Holding perpetrators accountable
One of many huge hopes amongst Syrians is for public, nationwide trials of Assad-era battle crimes.
Hasan al-Hariri helped to smuggle greater than 1.3 million items of documentary proof out of Syria.
For the reason that begin of the battle in 2011, he has been working for the Fee for Worldwide Justice and Accountability (CIJA), which specialises in amassing felony proof.
Al-Hariri led a group of people that would find and retrieve paperwork from locations like regime intelligence buildings and police stations – in areas the place al-Assad’s forces had been pushed out, or whereas combating was nonetheless occurring.
They then got here up with artistic methods to sneak the precious paperwork by army checkpoints and ultimately throughout the border.
“Generally we used to benefit from shifting furnishings,” al-Hariri stated.
“We used to place the paperwork beneath the automotive’s ground and fill it with the furnishings of the home.”
CIJA now has an enormous archive of safety, army and intelligence paperwork that hyperlink battle crimes to regime officers on the highest ranges, all the best way as much as al-Assad himself.
“Nations that noticed conflicts, comparable to Bosnia, started work after 5 years and began amassing proof, so the proof was gone, or just a few easy issues may very well be collected,” al-Hariri stated.
“We labored throughout the battle, so the proof was alive.”
However whereas that implies Syria has a head-start within the judicial course of, nationwide trials are nonetheless a great distance away.
The Assad-era authorized system remains to be being reformed.
“It wants authorized infrastructure, administrative infrastructure, courts, judges, and assets,” stated al-Baaj.
However he added that there’s an eagerness amongst Syrians.
“All of us wish to see these public trials, wish to see the entire strategy of transitional justice beginning.”
That features individuals like al-Amayiri, who needs to see Saqr face trial.
However he says his largest need is to have the ability to mourn his family members.
“It’s now a dream for us to have a grave for our household to go to,” he stated.
“To know that these are their stays, and that they’re buried right here.”