Sweden on the frontline with Syria cases
11 February 2021By Lena Bjurström, for JusticeInfo.net
From the first war crimes trial to the first conviction of a government soldier, Sweden has been a pioneer in Europe in the prosecution of crimes committed in Syria. Today, the Swedish Public Prosecutor s Office remains a leader, with no less than 50 investigations opened on Syrian cases. But obstacles remain.
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Wolfgang Kaleck is using the justice system to do what nation-states will not or cannot.
Goetz Schleser/laif/Redux
December 14, 2020
Wolfgang Kaleck, a 60-year-old human rights lawyer with large blue eyes and a wave of sandy brown hair, smiles a lot for someone who has spent his life litigating some of the world’s worst atrocities. “The stories you hear you won’t forget,” he says, sitting at a long table in his office in Berlin’s Kreuzberg district. “But at the same time you learn about these cruel facts of the world, you learn about the light side, which is that there’s resistance basically everywhere.” He should know: For the better part of three decades, he has pursued cases across borders on behalf of victims who have been disappeared by the military dictatorship in Argentina and spied upon by the East German Stasi. He has filed criminal complaints against former U.S. officials, including President George W. Bush, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, CIA Direc