A/HRC/22/59 A. Execution of members of the Al-Berri clan, Aleppo, 28/29 July 45. Interviews with persons who made credible admissions against their own interest, provide an account of a mass killing that took place in Aleppo on 28 or 29 July. 46. An interviewee explained that there had been an agreement between the FSA and the Awlad Al-Berri in Aleppo to not engage in hostilities. Following this agreement, the FSA raided the police station of Bab Al-Naireb in Aleppo. Awlad Al-Berri, according to the FSA, “committed treason,” violating their agreement and attacking the FSA, resulting in the deaths of 11 FSA fighters. In retaliation, FSA reinforcements attacked Awlad Al-Berri, killed several members in combat, besieged Bab Al-Naired and captured five members of the Al-Berri family, including Zaino Al-Berri, a prominent Syrian parliamentarian. According to the interviewee, the FSA interrogated the five members of Awlad Al-Berri and found them to be “drug dealers, Shabbiha who oppress demonstrations and who arm citizens to oppress demonstrations, rapists of female students at Aleppo University and murders of youths.” According to the interviewee, one member of the Awlad Al-Berri confessed to raping 14 young women at Aleppo University. Following the interrogation, the five persons were referred to the ‘Shari’a Court’ in Aleppo, a quasi-judicial body established by Liwa Al-Tawhid. The ‘Shari’a Court’ sentenced all five persons to death. Liwa Al-Tawhid executed the sentence by gunning down those “convicted.” The event was filmed and the footage release on the internet. 47. The persons sentenced and executed by the ‘Shari’a Court’ in Aleppo were either hors de combat or civilians taking no active part in hostilities. The perpetrators, namely Liwa Al-Tawhid and the FSA, were aware of their status, having captured them in combat. The sequence of events, the lack of an appeal, combined with other accounts of ‘Shari’a Courts’ and councils amount to reasonable grounds to believe that the ‘Shari’a Court’ of Aleppo was not regularly constituted and did not afforded the essential guarantees of independence and impartiality and other judicial guarantees recognised as indispensable under international law. Consequently, there are reasonable grounds to believe that an antiGovernment armed group, likely the Liwa Al-Tawhid, which is affiliated with the FSA, perpetrated the war crime of sentencing and execution without due process. B. Execution of five soldiers in Latakia, post-July 2012 48. One interviewee, an FSA fighter, confirmed that he had been part of a brigade that had captured “five Alawites” on a road into Al-Haffa. He could not provide the date of the incident but stated it had happened after his defection to the FSA in late July. He stated that those captured were soldiers who had surrendered. The five captives were interrogated and “confessed to committing rape and killing civilians in Al-Haffa.” He confirmed that they were executed shortly afterwards. The interviewee noted that not all captured soldiers were executed by his FSA-affiliated group: “Sunni captives were kept. Alawites were executed.” In this instance, the FSA perpetrated the war crime of execution without due process. C. Incidents currently under investigation 49. Video footage of anti-Government armed groups summarily executing captured Government soldiers and affiliated militia members, informers and people believed to be members of the Shabbiha is publicly available. Namely, under investigation is the execution of 10 to 28 Government soldiers near Saraqeb, Idlib on 1 November. It is alleged that the execution was conducted by the Mountain Shield Brigade, an anti-Government armed group. Investigations are also continuing into the execution of 21 Government soldiers in Aleppo on 10 September. It is alleged that anti-Government armed groups 52 GE.13-10627