Damascus, Aug. 25 (SANA) Head of the National Commission for Transitional Justice Abdul Baset Abdul Latif said serious crimes are not subject to a statute of limitations and cannot be erased by time or forgotten.
“Today, we remember the victims of the Daraya massacre and reaffirm that their right to truth and accountability is both a responsibility and a commitment,” Abdul Latif said in a post on X Tuesday.
In August 2012, forces of the ousted regime launched a military campaign against Daraya that lasted several days, cutting electricity and communications, imposing a siege and shelling the city before raiding homes, killing residents and carrying out mass summary executions.
The campaign culminated in the massacre on Aug. 25, 2012, which killed 713 people, including 508 identified by name and 205 whose identities remain unknown.
Two months later, renewed shelling prompted residents to flee the city. Daraya came under a complete siege in early 2013 that lasted four years, before its residents were forcibly displaced to Idlib in northern Syria on Aug. 26, 2016.
Since liberation, the Syrian government has continued pursuing those involved in crimes against Syrians as part of transitional justice efforts to ensure accountability and safeguard the rights of victims and their families.
On Jan. 15, authorities arrested Shadi Mohammed Mayhoub, a former member of the Republican Guard under the ousted regime, over his alleged involvement in the massacre in the village of al-Balayeh in Daraya countryside.
F.J.
