Robert Petit, head of the International Impartial and Independent Mechanism, said in an interview that his team has formally requested permission from Syrian authorities to deploy personnel to Syria to preserve detention records, files and other evidence now accessible after the rapid collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s government.

Petit said the mechanism — created by a U.N. General Assembly resolution to support investigations and prosecutions of serious crimes in Syria — had accumulated substantial material while denied access to the country and now faces an urgent task to safeguard on-site archives and forensic material. “There is a time issue here,” Petit said, describing risks including water damage, misplaced documents and failing hard drives.

The mechanism, which Petit said began work in 2016, has supported justice efforts in multiple national jurisdictions while gathering its own data. He said his office had developed close relationships with civil-society actors and other stakeholders and had accumulated “over 284, I think, terabytes of data” that has been used to support investigations and prosecutions in about 16 jurisdictions and nearly 250 cases.

Petit described his December trip to Damascus as a first opportunity in years to engage directly with authorities. On Dec. 21, he said, his office formally requested permission to send teams to Syria to begin work on site; as of the interview he said the request was still pending. “We were successful in engaging at the level that we needed to. And at the time, we formally requested, to be able to send teams to work and discharge our mandate in Syria. We're still waiting for the answer,” Petit said.

Discussing conditions on the ground, Petit said the situation in Damascus appeared relatively secure and that many major sites were being protected, but he warned that outside the capital the situation remained fluid and potentially worse. He said preserving evidence would be a “multi-stakeholder project” and that no single entity could accomplish it alone, but his team aims to provide forensic expertise geared to criminal investigations.

Petit also noted the practical hazards to evidence: “We have information of papers strewn all over in a courtyard, potentially very important… Pipes burst, rain floods in, paper gets misplaced, hard drives go, go bad,” he said. He cautioned that while some material will have disappeared, the long-functioning state apparatus means there may be duplicates and corroborating records remaining.

The visit followed a January trip by Volker Türk, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, who called for “fair, impartial justice” and highlighted the scale of alleged atrocity crimes. Petit said any justice process should be Syrian-led and supported by the international community, and that there is no single “cookie-cutter” solution for accountability. “It must be Syrian led,” he said. “They must have the support of the international community to do what they decide to do.”

Petit emphasized that the mechanism’s work to date has included supporting national prosecutions under universal-jurisdiction frameworks and that the newly accessible sites may expand opportunities to assist ongoing and future prosecutions. He said his office had supported “almost 250” investigations and prosecutions and had aided jurisdictions around the world. The mechanism will continue to support those prosecutions while seeking access to Syria to preserve and forensically secure additional material.

Petit framed the work as urgent but methodical: securing sites, advising local authorities on preservation measures and preparing evidence so it reaches the standard needed in criminal proceedings. He said diplomatic engagement during the December visit produced “receptive interlocutors” and that he expected permission to operate on the ground to be a matter of administrative process rather than political will.

The interview highlighted two parallel challenges: the physical fragility of documentary and digital records after years of conflict, and the broader question of what form Syrian accountability will take. Petit said criminal accountability for the most responsible should be a priority, while other measures for transitional justice could vary according to Syrians’ choices. “You're taking an incredible challenge to define what is accountability, what is achievable accountability,” he said.

Petit closed by describing the mood he encountered in Damascus as a mixture of hope and anxiety and said Syrians’ own priorities should guide any justice process. Until his office receives formal permission to deploy, the mechanism plans to continue advising partners and supporting external prosecutions using already-collected material.