Obstructing the Path to Justice
Fadel Abdul Ghany, director of the Syrian Network for Human Rights, believes the circulation of these recordings falls within a complex area where three frameworks intersect, international criminal law, international humanitarian law, and the law of digital evidence.
Abdul Ghany told Enab Baladi that circulating such materials in an uncontrolled way falls within a clear regulatory vacuum, due to the current absence of an internationally recognized central authority with exclusive authority to handle them. He stressed that a person who keeps a copy of materials of this nature faces multi-level legal issues.
He explained that keeping evidence related to international crimes outside the control of competent authorities could constitute an obstruction of the path to justice, if it is proven that this was intentional or led to the destruction of part of the evidentiary record.
Article 70(1)(c) of the Rome Statute states the following:
The Court shall have jurisdiction over the following offences against its administration of justice when committed intentionally:
(c) Destroying evidence, tampering with evidence, or interfering with the collection of evidence.
Chain of Custody
The fundamental principle in international law is that the value of evidence is not limited to its content, but includes its verifiability and chain of custody.
According to Abdul Ghany, the “chain of custody” is the backbone of any digital evidence. It means the sequential documentation of every entity or person through whom the material passed, from the moment it was captured until it is submitted to the court.
He said that when anyone leaks a hard drive, or keeps a copy for themselves and publishes from it, this breaks the chain. There is no document proving when the recordings were captured, nor any guarantee that they were not edited or falsified.
Publication Reopens Families’ Wounds
Fadel Abdul Ghany, director of the Syrian Network for Human Rights, noted that there is no international text that absolutely prohibits publication. The right to access information is protected under Article 19(3) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, but restrictions include the protection of the rights of others.
Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights states:
- Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers…
- The exercise of the rights provided for in paragraph 2 of this article carries with it special duties and responsibilities. It may therefore be subject to certain restrictions, but these shall only be such as are provided by law and are necessary:
(a) For respect of the rights or reputations of others.
(b) For the protection of national security or of public order, or of public health or morals.
Abdul Ghany warned that publishing shocking content in this way without full verification carries direct human rights risks. If the materials are later proven to be fabricated, this would cause serious damage to the credibility of the entire case and could be used by suspects to cast doubt on all other evidence.
