On April 12, the US-based Center for Justice and Accountability revealed that it has brought a civil case against the Syrian regime for the widespread torture of Syrian civilians it has carried out over the past 12 years. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Obada Mzaik, a Syrian American who survived torture in detention and was able to leave the country.
News of this trial reached my home in one of the camps for displaced persons in northwestern Syria. In the midst of the devastation of war, the aftermath of the deadly earthquake that hit us in February, and the personal loss I suffered, this was much needed good news.
It was an important moment, not just for me, but for all of us Syrians, whose loved ones have been forcibly disappeared by the regime of Bashar al-Assad, held in arbitrary detention without charge, tortured and even killed.
On January 5, 2012, my husband Muhammad, a real estate contractor, was arrested and forcibly disappeared by the Syrian regime for helping organize peaceful demonstrations at the beginning of the Syrian revolution. It’s been over 11 years and I still don’t know anything about where he is or how he is.
Some detention survivors, who met him in detention, told me that he was murdered under torture in 2014, but when his parents, my in-laws, inquired with officials, they said he was not detained by them. We don’t know what to believe.
My daughter Maryam was only two months old when her father was arrested. She only knows his face from pictures I have of him. She loves to draw and ever since she discovered her love for art, she is constantly sketching his face. Maryam’s brother Abdulsalam was six when his father disappeared forcibly and her sister Zahraa was four and both often speak of him.
We have very little left to remember the happy life we had before Muhammad’s imprisonment. Our house where we lived in Maarat al-Nu’man was bombed several times, the last time it was destroyed. I still have a letter Mohammed gave me when we got engaged in January 2004. I have my engagement ring and a playing card with the words “I love you” written in his handwriting.
The word victim is sad and terrifying, but unfortunately my children and I are victims of a brutal regime. Since we live in Syria and there is no international tribunal to investigate all the crimes committed during the Syrian war, we have no way to seek justice.
That is why the US lawsuit is important to us, as are all others brought by foreign courts. In early April, a French court announced that it had charged three officials of the Syrian regime with complicity in crimes against humanity and war crimes. France has even issued an international arrest warrant against them.
Last year, a German court sentenced Anwar Raslan, a former officer in the Syrian army, to life in prison for crimes against humanity. And in 2021, victims of the Assad regime’s chemical attacks in Sweden have brought a case against Syrian officials.
These lawsuits expose the system of detention and torture used to control and oppress the Syrian population.
Although Syria has disappeared from the international news headlines, the Assad regime continues its horrific practices of forcibly disappearing and abusing Syrian citizens. Anyone who dares to stand up for freedom or democracy, even criticize Assad, or even be in the wrong place at the wrong time, can be arbitrarily arrested.
This also happens with Syrians who decide to return voluntarily or are deported from countries where they have applied for asylum. Syria is not a “safe place” for refugees to return to.
Many Syrians would rather live in legal limbo in camps for refugees or displaced persons than bravely enter regime-controlled areas to obtain travel documents. I myself no longer have a valid passport and cannot travel with my children to a place where we would feel safer.
These lawsuits in the US, France, Germany and Sweden give us some hope. They keep us going in our fight to free our loved ones from Assad’s prisons. As much as 135,000 people are believed to still be stuck.
I and hundreds of detention survivors, members of detainees’ families and activists are working hard to build a global movement to get them released. We launched the campaign Free Syria is gone to draw attention to their plight and pressure the international community to act.
These lawsuits filed abroad help us fight the normalization of the Assad regime, remind the world of its heinous crimes, and hopefully encourage efforts to bring about real peace. Because only when there is peace in Syria can we get real justice for the crimes committed against us.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial view of Al Jazeera.