Lawyers:ICC Probe of Syria Deportations

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) -- Human rights lawyers are urging the International Criminal Court to open a preliminary investigation into alleged mass deportations by Syrian authorities, in an attempt to hold President Bashar Assad's regime accountable for atrocities in the country's bloody civil war.

Lawyers for the Guernica Centre for International Justice argue that a precedent set last year in a case involving the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar can be used to give the Hague-based court jurisdiction over an element of the Syrian conflict.

The ICC does not have jurisdiction over crimes committed in Syria because the country is not a member of the court. However one of the lawyers involved in the filing said Thursday the court could exercise jurisdiction over civilians forcefully deported to Jordan, which is a member of the court.

(KA)