(Zaman Alwasl)- Caesar, the defector officer who was taking pictures of 11 thousand killed detainees in Bashar al-Asaad’s prisons and who smuggled a huge cache of evidence showing the "systematic killing" on January, may testify in the planned U.N. Security Council vote on Thursday on a resolution to refer Syria's civil war to the International Criminal Court, a well-informed source told Zaman Alwasl.
The United States which agreed to support the draft resolution may provide the ‘Witness King’ to the Security Council, the source said.
The defector, who for security reasons is identified only as Caesar, was a photographer with the Syrian military police. He smuggled the images out of the country on memory sticks to a contact in the Syrian National Movement, which is supported by the Gulf state of Qatar. Qatar, which has financed and armed rebel groups, has called for the overthrow of Assad and demanded his prosecution, according to The Guardian.
Caesar told the investigators his job was "taking pictures of killed detainees". He did not claim to have witnessed executions or torture. But he did describe a highly bureaucratic system.
U.S agreed on the draft after ensuring that Israel would be protected from any possible prosecution at the ICC related to its occupation of the Golan Heights in Syria, U.N. diplomats said.
Despite Russia's opposition, a senior U.N. Security Council diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity to Reuters, described the planned vote as "the right thing to do." He said: "The time has come when the situation should be referred to ICC."
It will be Russia's fourth veto of a U.N. Security Council resolution on Syria. Moscow has shielded its ally Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his government from strong action by the 15-member council during the conflict.
The ICC prosecutor cannot investigate the situation in Syria without a referral from the 15-member Security Council because Damascus is not a member of the Rome Statute that established court a decade ago. The Security Council has previously referred Libya and Darfur, Sudan to the international court.
U.N. investigators said in March that they had expanded their list of suspected war criminals from both sides in the civil war and that the evidence was solid enough to prepare any court indictment.
U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay told the Security Council last month that human rights violations by Syrian government forces "far outweigh" those by armed opposition groups.
The United States agreed to support the draft resolution after ensuring that Israel would be protected from any possible prosecution at the ICC related to its occupation of the Golan Heights in Syria, U.N. diplomats said.
Eleven countries on the Security Council are members of the International Criminal Court. The United States, Russia, China and Rwanda are not. (with agencies)
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