Justice Or Vengeance In Post‑Assad Syria: The Fragile Fight Over Accountability

Justice Or Vengeance In Post‑Assad Syria

Ziad Mahmoud al‑Amayiri sits with photographs of the 10 members of his family who disappeared during the war spread across a table. His verdict is stark: “There are two options: either the government gives me justice, or I take justice myself.” His anger is directed at one man — Fadi Saqr, a former commander in the National Defence Forces (NDF), accused by local officials, activists and leaked footage of links to the 2013 Tadamon massacre. Saqr denies involvement and has said he was not the NDF leader at the time.

Safe Passage, Deep Grievances

Rather than facing trial, Saqr is reportedly walking free after being granted “safe passage” by Syria’s new leadership early in the transition, a move Hassan Soufan of the government’s Committee for Civil Peace described as intended to calm tensions tied to Saqr’s ties with local Alawite communities. For relatives in Tadamon and across the country, that conciliatory strategy has left a bitter taste. “How was the government able to forgive Fadi Saqr with the blood of our families?” al‑Amayiri asked. “I don’t think they will be able to hold him accountable after that.”

“It is certain that any Syrian citizen will feel that if the transitional justice process does not start properly, they will resort to their own ways…”

Transitional Justice In Practice — Institutions And Limits

In the year since Bashar al‑Assad’s fall in December 2024, Syria’s interim authorities have framed transitional justice as a priority while also trying to prevent renewed bloodshed. Two national bodies were created: one, led by Abdel Latif, to investigate broad violations by the former regime; the other to identify and account for the vast number of missing people believed to have been taken into Assad‑era prisons and buried in mass graves.

Estimates of the missing vary. While some reports cite numbers above 100,000, the head of the National Commission on Missing Persons places the figure closer to 300,000. Authorities and the UN continue to report new abductions; UN human rights spokesperson Thameen al‑Kheetan warned that they “continue to receive worrying reports about dozens of abductions and enforced disappearances.”

Violence, Revenge And The Risk Of Escalation

Delays and opaque procedures are not abstract concerns: they have real, deadly consequences. As of November 2025 the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported 1,301 deaths in what it described as retaliatory actions since December 2024 — a figure that excludes the much larger death tolls from concentrated bouts of violence. A UN report found that coastal massacres in March killed roughly 1,400 people, mainly civilians. Clashes in Suwayda in July, between Druze and Bedouin communities, killed hundreds, mostly Druze.

Experts say this is the classic transitional dilemma: how to balance immediate stability with the need for accountability. Ibrahim al‑Assil of the Atlantic Council described the challenge plainly: “Which one comes first? It’s very important to realise that they do need to work hand in hand, but things are never ideal.”

Evidence, Arrests And Questions Of Transparency

One concrete asset for accountability is an archive of documentary evidence. Hasan Al Hariri and the Commission for International Justice and Accountability (CIJA) helped smuggle more than 1.3 million documents out of Syria — paperwork from intelligence buildings, police stations and other state archives that may link alleged crimes to senior officials.

Despite that cache and dozens of arrests publicised by authorities — often accompanied by polished social‑media videos of confessions and courtroom appearances — families and activists say transparency is lacking. They ask basic questions: Where are detainees held? What investigations are underway? On what legal basis are arrests being made? “We don’t really know what’s happening to these people,” activist Wafa Ali Mustafa said. Critics warn that mass arrests without a clear, consistent legal framework risk undermining trust and provoking further unrest.

The Practical Challenge Ahead

Officials acknowledge the scale of the task. Mohammad Reda Jalkhi, head of the National Commission on Missing Persons, stressed the need for capacity building: databases, forensic laboratories, administrative and legal infrastructure, trained judges and investigators. “All this does not happen overnight,” he said.

For many Syrians, the hope for public, national trials is both a demand for justice and a civic reckoning. “All of us want to see these public trials,” said activist Danny al‑Baaj. For families such as al‑Amayiri’s, however, the most elemental yearning remains a grave to visit and a confirmed resting place for their loved ones. “It is now a dream for us to have a grave for our family to visit,” he said. “To know that these are their remains, and that they are buried here.”

Conclusion

Syria’s transitional justice process is under intense pressure: to prosecute crimes, to be transparent and to secure fragile peace. How the interim authorities balance those competing demands — and how quickly they establish credible, open mechanisms for truth, accountability and reparations — will shape whether Syrians turn to institutions or to vengeance.