Jurisdictions Assisted
As part of its mandate, the IIIM supports law enforcement agencies, investigative authorities, prosecutorial authorities, and judges that investigate, prosecute or try core international crimes committed in the Syrian Arab Republic since March 2011. The IIIM does not assist immigration or intelligence agencies, or cases solely related to terrorism or immigration offences.
Assistance is provided to jurisdictions that respect human rights law and standards, including the right to a fair trial, and only in support of cases where the death penalty would not apply.
The IIIM also generally does not provide assistance in circumstances in which a trial may be held on the basis of universal jurisdiction when the defendant is not present (in absentia).
Types of Assistance
The IIIM primarily supports competent jurisdictions by sharing information and evidence collected and preserved in its Central Repository, upon request (“Request for Assistance/RFA”) or on its own initiative (proactively).
With the help of a multi-disciplinary and multi-lingual team of evidence officers, analysts, investigators and legal officers, the IIIM ensures that it only shares material of relevance to the investigation or case at issue and that it has clear and informed consent to share from the source.
The IIIM also shares the analytical products that it prepares, from focused analytical reports on certain categories of crimes or specific entities to in-depth evidentiary modules.
The scope of the IIIM’s assistance to jurisdiction continues to expand to include:
- Multi-lingual open-source research
- Geolocating crime scenes and other locations of interest
- Identifying and locating witnesses for interviews by competent jurisdictions
- Introducing sources to competent jurisdictions
- Translation of high-value data
- Conducting high-value interviews for competent jurisdictions
Proactive Sharing
The IIIM can proactively share information and evidence from its Central Repository if it becomes aware that it will likely be of help to an ongoing investigation or prosecution in an identified competent jurisdiction. The IIIM’s ability to do so depends on the extent to which it receives information from national jurisdictions about the parameters of ongoing investigations and prosecutions.