Published On 4/24/2026
Talk is returning again in Syria about the issue of transitional justice and holding those responsible for the violations committed against Syrians accountable, following the arrest of the perpetrator of the Tadamon massacre, in which 288 civilians were killed, according to the Tadamon neighborhood coordination official.
The Syrian Interior Ministry said that the arrest of Amjad Yousef came as a result of monitoring and tracking that continued for several days in the Al-Ghab Plain in the Hama countryside, and pledged to pursue the rest of the perpetrators of the Tadamon massacre to arrest them and bring them to justice.
On April 16, 2013, the forces of the ousted regime killed 41 civilians in the Tadamon neighborhood massacre in Damascus, and threw them into a large hole. Human bones were later found in the area, as monitored by Anatolia Lens on December 20, 2024.
Writer and political analyst Omar Koush believes in his interview with the “Beyond the News” program that this step will constitute a test of the path of transitional justice in Syria, given the scale of the crime committed in the Tadamon neighborhood, and because this arrest will move the case from prosecution and follow-up to accountability and investigation, and thus prevent impunity, which is what the families of the victims are waiting for.
He pointed out that there are criticisms of the process of transitional justice in Syria. Despite the formation of the National Authority for Transitional Justice, the transitional justice law that would reassure people has not yet been published publicly.
Academic and political researcher Kamal Abboud describes the path of transitional justice in Syria as complex, and believes that it requires internal and international efforts to complete the prosecution of the accused figures and develop the necessary legislation. He pointed out that Syria needs a court similar to the one that was established in the case of the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
He says that the path of transitional justice in Syria cannot be separated from civil peace, given that Syrian society is torn apart by sectarianism founded by the ousted regime, and therefore any step in the field of transitional justice must also be preceded by a step in the field of civil peace, to prevent matters from slipping into internal fighting or retaliatory justice.
Abboud believes that the Syrian government is very cautious in dealing with the file despite being accused of negligence and not having an integrated strategy. For example, there are those who accuse it of establishing trials for the Sahel events before starting with the transitional justice file in Syria, which is the largest. He says that arresting a killer here or a killer there is a good measure, but it does not absolve the government from being accountable for the integrated strategy.
On the other hand, Abboud Al-Arab called on the international community to help the Syrian government in this field, as it needs specialized criminal cadres, many modern technical tools, and a data bank.
Syrian privacy
Regarding the specificity of the Syrian situation, the Syrian academic and researcher told the “Beyond the News” program that transitional justice must proceed step by step alongside civil peace, and the Syrian government must benefit from the experiences of others, from Rwanda, South Africa, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, in creating a Syrian model that achieves justice for the victims.
As for the writer and political analyst Omar Kosh, all the countries that followed the path of transitional justice also have their own particularities, such as Chile, Argentina, South Africa, and Rwanda, but he believes that this specificity does not prevent him from taking practical steps and enacting a law for transitional justice and initiating it. He believes that if the implementation of transitional justice begins, the processes of revenge and retaliation that occur from time to time will disappear.
The program’s guests stressed the issue of transparency, given that in countries of the world where massacres of this kind and fighting occurred over sectarian or ethnic principles, the families of the victims are represented in transitional justice bodies.
Academic and political researcher Kamal Abboud says that all the Syrian people demand transparency, not just the families of the victims.
It is noteworthy that in May 2025, the Syrian presidency issued a decree to form a transitional justice body responsible for revealing the facts regarding the violations of the previous regime, holding those responsible for them accountable, and reparating the harm caused to the victims.
President Ahmed Al-Sharaa said at the time that the formation of this body comes out of belief in the necessity of achieving transitional justice as a basic pillar for building the state of law, to guarantee the rights of victims, and to achieve comprehensive national reconciliation.
