Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Media, Law & Policy
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Media, Law & Policy

Someday Assad Will Be Held Accountable, Says War Crimes Prosecutor David Crane

Thursday, September 7, 2017, By Sawyer Kamman
Share

Syracuse University College of Law Professor David Crane, a former war crimes prosecutor, reacts to the recent UN report that Syria used chemical weapons against citizens.

“The indiscriminate use of a prohibited weapon system such as a nerve agent like sarin if inconceivable in the modern era. Yet Assad has chosen to take a step back into the dark ages by taking the horror of a genie out of the bottle. Some day he will be held accountable.  He hears our footsteps and there will be a knock at this door,” said Crane.

Prof. Crane is the founder of the Syrian Accountability Project out of the College of Law at Sryacuse University. The group works to document war crimes in Syria and the laws that have been violated. This is an effort to eventually bring the perpetrators to justice.

In April they released the whitepaper Idlib Left Breathless: A Report on the Chemical Attack in Khan Sheikhoun which details the April 4, 2017 attack that killed at least 87 people and injured more than 500. The paper offers compelling evidence that the gas used in the attack was the nerve agent sarin, one of the most potent and fast-acting chemical weapons, banned under international law ever since the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention.

Previously, the group released the 2016 whitepaper Looking Through the Window Darkly, a Snapshot Analysis of Rape in Syria, 2011-2015, which analyzed 142 sexual crimes perpetrated by all sides in the Syrian Civil War and which revealed that the Syrian Regime perpetrated 62% of the total incidents. In 2017, the group also released the whitepaper Covered in Dust, Veiled by Shadow that detailed 160 day siege of Aleppo by Assad forces.

From 2002 to 2005, Prof. Crane was the founding chief prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, an international war crimes tribunal.  Of those he indicted included Liberian President Charles Taylor, the first sitting African head of state in history to be held accountable in this way.  Prof. Crane is also one of the co-authors of the Cesaer Report published in 2014 and detailing the torture and deaths in Syrian prisons.

Prof. Crane is available to speak to media via phone, email, Skype, or LTN studio. Please contact Ellen James Mbuqe, director of news and PR at Syracuse University, at ejmbuqe@syr.edu or 315.443.1897 or Keith Kobland, media manager at Syracuse University, at kkobland@syr.edu or 315.443.9038.

  • Author
  • Faculty Experts

Sawyer Kamman

  • Recent
  • Study Abroad and the Academic Experience
    Thursday, September 21, 2023, By Wendy S. Loughlin
  • Education Expert: Massive Public Investment Needed to Solve Teacher Shortages 
    Wednesday, September 20, 2023, By Christopher Munoz
  • University Football Films Collection Now Available Online
    Tuesday, September 19, 2023, By Cristina Hatem
  • Syracuse Views Fall 2023
    Tuesday, September 19, 2023, By Christine Weber
  • 7 New Representatives Added to the Board of Trustees
    Monday, September 18, 2023, By News Staff

More In Media, Law & Policy

Robertson Fellows Aspire to Serve as Foreign Service Officers

Interested in careers in the foreign service, Zoe Prin and Forrest Gatrell took advantage of internships and other opportunities as undergraduates that exposed them to the inner workings of government, policymaking and service from differing vantage points. While Gatrell obtained…

Craig M. Boise to Conclude Tenure as College of Law Dean at End of Academic Year

When Craig M. Boise stepped into his role as dean of the College of Law in the spring of 2016, he described his vision to create “a sustainable law school that leverages the knowledge, skill and imagination of its faculty…

Meet Biko Skalla ’18, Voice of the World-Famous Savannah Bananas

Baseball is America’s pastime, a game rich in history and time-honored traditions, where change is slow to be embraced and slower still to be adopted. Then, there are the Savannah Bananas, a minor league baseball team that has changed the…

Sports Broadcaster Anish Shroff ’04 Hopes to Inspire Future Generations of South Asian Sportscasters

Anish Shroff ’04 happens to be the only minority radio play-by-play voice of a National Football League (NFL) team. It’s not something the veteran sportscaster embraces, but it’s a trend that seems to be shifting. Eternally proud of his South…

Johanna Dunaway Named Research Director for the Institute for Democracy, Journalism and Citizenship

Johanna Dunaway was among a trio of researchers who looked at voting patterns in communities of shuttered newspapers in 2018 and found evidence that the decline in local print media has contributed to political polarization in the United States. Published…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • 2015-16 Remembrance Scholars
  • 25th Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration
  • About
    • SU Today Publishing Schedule
  • Authors
  • Campus Email Intake Form
  • Communications Contacts
  • Connect with SU
  • Contact
  • Defenses and Examinations
  • Exhibitions
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
    • Media Experts: Syracuse University Researchers on COVID-19
  • Home
  • Inside SU Landing Page
  • Lawrence B. Taishoff Center Q&A
  • Media Coverage
  • Orange Appreciation Days/Winter Break Information
  • Past Stories
  • Resource Library: Blogs
  • Resource Library: Crisis Management
  • Resource Library: Media Relations
  • Resource Library: Media Training
  • Resource Library: Op-Eds
  • Resource Library: Research
  • Resource Library: Social Media / Social Networking
  • Resource Library: Useful Web Links
  • Sections
  • Statement from Syracuse University Vice Chancellor and Provost Eric Spina Regarding Law School Student Blog Matter
  • Student Spotlights
  • SU News Services Resource Library
  • Submit an Announcement
  • Submitting News and Events
    • Submit an Announcement
    • Submit an Event
  • Subscribe
  • Syracuse Views
  • Topics
  • University Community Harvest Farmers’ Market
  • Videos
  • What’s New
  • Yearly Archive
  • ’Cuse Conversations Page With Subscription Box
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • @SUCampus
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2023 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.