UN-backed investigatory body presses to secure detention records and other evidence after fall of Bashar al-Assad

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…