UNITED NATIONS, July 4 (APP): UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres
has appointed a French legal expert and former judge to head the UN investigative body that will help document and prosecute the most serious violations of international law in Syria, including possible war crimes
and crimes against humanity.
The appointment of Catherine Marchi-Uhel, who has been serving as the
ombudsperson for the Security Council committee monitoring sanctions
against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)/Da’esh and
al-Qaeda, was announced by US Spokesman Stephane Dujarric on Monday.
The panel, formally known as the International, Impartial and
Independent Mechanism to Assist in the Investigation and Prosecution of Those Responsible for the Most Serious Crimes under International Law Committed in Syrian Arab Republic since March 2011, was established by
the UN General Assembly in December last year.
Ms. Marchi-Uhel was previously a judge in France and an international
judge with the UN mission in Kosovo and at the Cambodia court prosecuting leaders of the Khmer Rouge. She also served as senior legal officer at
the International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and worked in legal positions at the French foreign ministry.
Since 2015, she had been serving as the Ombudsperson for the Security
Council Committee pursuant to resolutions 1267 (1999), 1989 (2011) and
2253 (2015) concerning ISIL/Da’esh, Al-Qaeda, and associated individuals, groups, undertakings and entities.
