Justice found? Germany sentences war criminal, bringing hope to Syrians.

When a German court this month found a former high-ranking Syrian government official guilty of war crimes, it wasn’t just the victims’ families who felt hope.

So too did an international community of human rights lawyers and activists, who saw the verdict as one that might open a path to justice for other victims in war-torn Syria and help deter such crimes in similar conflicts elsewhere.

“The trial could really create the conditions to push the door open to wider accountability for the conflict in Syria,” says Balkees Jarrah, the interim international justice director at Human Rights Watch. “The more judicial activity there is in response to demands from survivors and others, the harder – we hope – it will be to sweep the accountability issue under the rug. This shows the long arm of justice, but it also shows that justice