Syria will set up commissions for justice and missing persons tasked with probing crimes committed during the rule of the Assad family, compensating victims, and finding thousands of people whose whereabouts remain unknown, the presidency said.
Syria's grinding 13-year civil war has left hundreds of thousands of people, most of them civilians, dead and more than 100,000 people missing, according to United Nations estimates and human rights groups.
Former leader Bashar al-Assad was ousted by Islamist rebels Hayat Tahrir al-Sham last year in a stunning 11-day offensive, a shift met with jubilation by many Syrians who nonetheless want to see accountability for abuses suffered under the former government, including in a notorious dungeon-like prison system.
The National Transitional Justice Commission's remit is "exposing the truth about the grave violations committed by the former regime and holding those responsible accountable, in coordination with relevant authorities," said a statement from the presidency seen by Reuters.
It did not say whether the commission would be responsible for investigating and addressing violations by other parties involved in the Syrian war, such as Islamic State.
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