Top lawyer, who won ‘killed journalist’ US$ 300 million from Syrian Govt, to lead torture case against Gota
Scott Gilmore, formerly at the Centre for Justice and Accountability (CJA) and now in partnership with the International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP), with the international law firm Hausfeld -- who have filed a civil damages case in California against former Sri Lankan defence secretary, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, on behalf of a Tamil torture survivor Roy Samathanam -- was the lead counsel for the family of the London Sunday Times war correspondent Marie Colvin, who was killed in Syria in February 2012. In an unprecedented judgment, a US court held the Syrian government to account, found it guilty of a war crime and ordered it to pay $302 million in damages for an “unconscionable crime.”
The New York Times on 31st January this year reported:
A federal court has held Syria’s government liable for the targeting and killing of an American journalist as she reported on the shelling of a rebellious area of Homs in 2012. The decision could help ease the way for war-crimes prosecutions arising from the Syria conflict.
Issued by the United States District Court in Washington, the decision awarded $ 302.5 million to relatives of the journalist, Marie Colvin. Of that sum, $300 million is punitive damages for what Judge Amy Berman Jackson, in her ruling, called “Syria’s longstanding policy of violence” that aimed
“to intimidate journalists” and “suppress dissent.”
“Our hope is that this case in some ways will provide a blueprint for future cases against the regime” led by President Bashar al-Assad, said Scott Gilmore, lawyer for the Colvins, after Judge Jackson’s ruling was issued.
Meanwhile, it was also reported: “US District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson in his verdict concluded the Syrian military had deliberately targeted the makeshift media centre in the city of Homs where Colvin and other journalists were working on February 22, 2012.
"She was specifically targeted because of her profession, for the purpose of silencing those reporting on the growing opposition movement in the country," Jackson wrote.
Colvin, a 56-year-old war correspondent working for Britain's Sunday Times newspaper when she died, wore a signature black patch over her left eye after being blinded by a grenade in Sri Lanka in 2001. The 2018 film "A Private War" was based on her life.
Collecting the money will be an arduous effort that, at best, will take years, Mr. Gilmore said. But more significant, he said, the ruling was the first time a court had held the Syrian government responsible for an atrocity from a war convulsing the country for nearly eight years. Lawyers for Colvin's family hope to recover the $302m settlement by targeting frozen Syrian government assets overseas.
"The challenge now is going to be enforcing the judgment," said Scott Gilmore, lead counsel for the Colvin family. "The precedents show that it is possible to recover assets."