Digital Evidence in Domestic Core International Crimes Prosecutions

Abstract

Abstract The conflicts in Syria and Iraq, being some of the most documented in history, have also led to one of the largest influxes of refugees to Europe in recent years. Many of the asylum seekers arriving in European cities identified themselves, or have been identified, as victims, witnesses or perpetrators of atrocities. Consequently, criminal investigations have been initiated by the local police with the aim of prosecuting those responsible for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Syria and Iraq. With an increasing number of war crimes prosecutions in European domestic courts relating to the atrocities committed, documented and shared by returning fighters, domestic authorities are compelled to find ways to effectively collect, process, analyse and share the user-generated data. This article discusses the ways in which digital evidence related to the conflicts in Syria and Iraq, particularly online open source materials, are being litigated and judicially evaluated in the domestic jurisdictions of Germany, Finland, Sweden and the Netherlands. Finding parallels between these approaches, with the aim of distilling best practices in evidence collection, processing and analysis, should inform future prosecutions of international crimes in domestic jurisdictions worldwide.