The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court meets with the de facto leader of Syria Bashar al-Assad news

Karim Khan of the International Criminal Court makes an unannounced visit to Damascus for talks on “accountability for alleged crimes.”

The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court made an unannounced visit to Syria to meet with Ahmed al-Sharaa, the leader of Syria’s new de facto government, to discuss how to ensure accountability for alleged crimes committed in the country.

Prosecutor Karim Khan met with Al-Sharaa and the Syrian Foreign Minister on Friday to discuss options for achieving justice at the International Criminal Court for victims of the country’s 13-year-old war.

A statement issued by Khan’s office said that he “traveled to Damascus at the invitation of the Syrian transitional government.”

She said that the visit aims to discuss how the office “can offer its partnership to support the efforts of the Syrian authorities towards accountability for the alleged crimes committed in the country.”

The International Criminal Court, which has 125 member states, is the world’s permanent court for trying individuals for war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and aggression.

Opposition fighters in Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, an affiliate of Hay’at al-Shara, led a lightning attack that ousted President Bashar al-Assad last month, and the group became the country’s de facto ruling party.

Al-Assad, who fled to Russia last December, launched a repressive campaign against his opponents during his time in power for more than two decades.

Human rights groups estimated that tens of thousands of people went missing after anti-government protests began in 2011, with many disappearing into Assad’s prison network. It is likely that many of them were killed, either in mass executions or due to torture and prison conditions. The exact number is still unknown.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the global chemical weapons monitoring organization, found that Syrian forces were responsible for multiple attacks using chlorine gas and other banned substances against civilians.

Other groups have also been accused of committing human rights violations and war crimes during the war in the country.

The new authorities called for members of the Assad regime to be brought to justice. It is unclear exactly how that will work at this point.

Syria is not a member of the International Criminal Court, which has left the court without the ability to investigate the war. In 2014, Russia and China blocked a UN Security Council referral that would have given the court jurisdiction. Similar referrals were made to Sudan and Libya.

Khan’s visit comes after a trip to Damascus last month by the United Nations organization that helps investigate the most serious crimes in Syria.

The International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism for Syria was established to help collect evidence and prosecute individuals responsible for possible war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide since the start of the Syrian war in 2011.

More than half a million people were killed in the war and more than six million others fled the country.