Former Yazidi sex slaves and others who suffered under the brutal reign of ISIS will soon be able to upload evidence against their abusers through a mobile phone app, the head of the UN investigation team in Iraq said on Monday.
Karim Ahmad Khan told a video UN Security Council meeting that the app, which will come online this month, will allow ISIS victims to upload photographs and other proof of abuse to help put perpetrators behind bars.
Mr Khan is the head of the investigations team known as Unitad.
The app is a boon for ISIS victims, many of whom fled overseas during the extremist group's onslaught and have struggled to testify against their abusers.
Victims’ groups say that too few ISIS militiamen have faced justice for their crimes.
“We’re rolling out a mobile application that allows Unitad to work and communicate directly with the survivor communities, whether they’re in Iraq, Australia or Germany,” Mr Khan said.
“They can actually give us their names and details securely. They can even update photographs and other material so that we can expedite our focused investigation to get results.”
The app was initially designed to gather evidence in Iraq under the coronavirus pandemic travel restrictions, Unitad said in its latest report.
But it became clear that it could ease communication with victims who had fled Iraq and lived overseas.
The app is not the first time UN investigators have turned to technology to build cases against ISIS militiamen, who swept across western Iraq from Syria in 2014 to expand their self-declared caliphate and brutalise minorities.
Mr Khan said “4K drones” had been sent to capture high-quality footage of mass graves and the sites of ISIS atrocities.
High-tech “3D laser scanners” on the ground could also help to build powerful cases.
“We can preserve crime scenes and represent them in 3D modelling so that, whether it’s in Baghdad or Bartella or Berlin, this evidence can be put before judges so they can understand what took place, how it took place, and it can bring life to the accounts of witnesses and courageous survivors,” Mr Khan said.
Iraqi prosecutors have provided UN detectives with about 2 million data trails from mobile phone communications in Sinjar from July and August 2014, when ISIS was rampaging through the Yazidi heartland, he said.
“That allows us to locate witnesses, who have given accounts to say where they were, and perpetrators, to see where suspects were, who they spoke to in different time periods," Mr Khan said.
"We’ve used that technology with quite some success."
War crimes investigators have also received mobile phones, hard drives, computers and other equipment confiscated from ISIS prisoners that can be “scrubbed for evidence” and used by prosecutors in Iraq and overseas.
Mr Khan said the approach was paying off.
Investigators have used digital evidence, exhumations of mass graves and witness testimonies to identify 344 ISIS abusers across 16 crime sites in the north-western Sinjar region.
They have also begun to broaden their search, including for non-Yazidi ISIS victims.
They include the Shabak, Kakai and Turkmen communities and Sunni Muslims.
Mr Khan urged Iraqi politicians to pass a law designed by President Barham Salih to allow courts to prosecute war crimes, which has been delayed in recent months during Iraq’s political turmoil, mass protest movement and the coronavirus outbreak.
Iraq’s UN ambassador, Mohammed Al Uloom, told the council that his country's “wounds will heal only by revealing the perpetrators of these heinous crimes and by bringing them to justice”.
Iraqi forces were brushed aside as ISIS swept across the country in 2014, slaughtering thousands of members of the Yazidi minority community in Sinjar and forcing more than 7,000 women and girls into sexual slavery.
A US-led military coalition pushed the militants back and Iraq declared victory over ISIS in December 2017.
Iraqi officials have since prosecuted tens of thousands of detained former fighters, but Human Rights Watch and Yazidi activists say the trials are often flawed.
A UN report in January found that Iraqi judges relied too heavily on confessions from suspects, which are often obtained under torture.
Many suspects have been prosecuted for membership of ISIS, rather than for the specific atrocities they had committed.
Under pressure from human rights lawyer Amal Clooney and Yazidi survivors, the UN Security Council in 2017 created Unitad to help Iraq collect and preserve evidence for future prosecution.
THE APPRENTICE
Director: Ali Abbasi
Starring: Sebastian Stan, Maria Bakalova, Jeremy Strong
Rating: 3/5
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Spain drain
CONVICTED
Lionel Messi Found guilty in 2016 of of using companies in Belize, Britain, Switzerland and Uruguay to avoid paying €4.1m in taxes on income earned from image rights. Sentenced to 21 months in jail and fined more than €2m. But prison sentence has since been replaced by another fine of €252,000.
Javier Mascherano Accepted one-year suspended sentence in January 2016 for tax fraud after found guilty of failing to pay €1.5m in taxes for 2011 and 2012. Unlike Messi he avoided trial by admitting to tax evasion.
Angel di Maria Argentina and Paris Saint-Germain star Angel di Maria was fined and given a 16-month prison sentence for tax fraud during his time at Real Madrid. But he is unlikely to go to prison as is normal in Spain for first offences for non-violent crimes carrying sentence of less than two years.
SUSPECTED
Cristiano Ronaldo Real Madrid's star striker, accused of evading €14.7m in taxes, appears in court on Monday. Portuguese star faces four charges of fraud through offshore companies.
Jose Mourinho Manchester United manager accused of evading €3.3m in tax in 2011 and 2012, during time in charge at Real Madrid. But Gestifute, which represents him, says he has already settled matter with Spanish tax authorities.
Samuel Eto'o In November 2016, Spanish prosecutors sought jail sentence of 10 years and fines totalling €18m for Cameroonian, accused of failing to pay €3.9m in taxes during time at Barcelona from 2004 to 2009.
Radamel Falcao Colombian striker Falcao suspected of failing to correctly declare €7.4m of income earned from image rights between 2012 and 2013 while at Atletico Madrid. He has since paid €8.2m to Spanish tax authorities, a sum that includes interest on the original amount.
Jorge Mendes Portuguese super-agent put under official investigation last month by Spanish court investigating alleged tax evasion by Falcao, a client of his. He defended himself, telling closed-door hearing he "never" advised players in tax matters.
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Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
A Long Way Home by Peter Carey
Faber & Faber
Our legal consultant
Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
