STOCKHOLM -- Grinning for the camera, a man in Syrian army fatigues rests his boot on a corpse. Around him, more bodies litter the floor.
The photograph resembles hundreds, if not thousands, of images that have streamed out of Syria during six years of war. But for prosecutors a 3,000-mile drive away in the Swedish capital of Stockholm, this one was different.
The photo was presented as evidence in a trial that ended in a landmark conviction last month, the first anywhere in the world of a Syrian soldier for crimes committed during the war.
Monitoring groups say President Bashar Assad's forces are responsible for most of the atrocities committed in Syria's war, but cases previously tried in Sweden have involved fighters for the Islamic State or rebel forces.
Mohammed Abdullah, 32, was sentenced to eight months in prison for violating the personal dignity of the men lying at his feet in the photograph.
With the U.N. Security Council deadlocked over Syria's war and international willingness for high-level prosecution fading, lawyers have turned to the principal of universal jurisdiction, which allows national courts to investigate certain international crimes.
But in a sign of the limitations of some cases against Assad's government and security forces in European courts, Judge Anders Larsson threw out the more serious charge of execution, citing a lack of evidence.
"The downsides of a universal jurisdiction process like this is that it is taking place in a state with no natural tie to the country where a case took place. You can't easily get a witness out of Syria to come and testify," said Kevin Heller, an associate professor of international law at the University of Amsterdam, referring to the legal provision under which the Swedish case was brought.
In the United States, a legal team has started proceedings against the Syrian government over its alleged targeting of an American journalist, Marie Colvin, in 2012. In Germany and Spain, charges also have been brought against high-ranking members of Assad's security apparatus.
The case in Sweden had been years in the making, according to prosecutors and activists involved.
Shortly after Abdullah arrived in Sweden to claim asylum in 2015, Syrian activists alerted the country's Migration Board of photographs on his Facebook page indicating that he had fought as a member of Assad's army, appearing to show that he had committed human-rights abuses in the process.
Initial efforts to bring charges failed for lack of evidence, and it took time for the Sweden-based team of lawyers and Syrian activists to convince authorities that the former soldier should be arrested again.
Rami Hamido, director of the Syrian Al Kawakibi Organization for Human Rights now living in Sweden, said the meetings were followed by what felt like endless periods of silence. "It took a long time," he said.
Hamido's reaction to the sentence was one of relief and exhaustion, despite disappointment at the length of the sentence.
"It was a very long day for me, but it sent a good message: that justice will reach everyone and accountability is coming," Hamido said. "I have been saying it since the beginning. There will be no peace without justice, and no justice without accountability."
A Section on 10/02/2017