White Helmets: The Assad regime is trying to hide evidence of using chemical weapons in Syria and obstruct investigations
The Syrian Civil Defense said that the Assad regime’s claim that the two gas cylinders it used in its air chemical attack on Douma in Damascus countryside on April 7, 2018, were destroyed by an air attack a few days ago, is nothing but a failed attempt, and a continuation of its systematic policy of concealing evidence.
The Foundation explained that the report issued by the Director-General of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons yesterday, confirms the Assad regime’s endeavor to obstruct the course of investigations by concealing evidence and preventing the commissions’ access to the site of the incident, and that the Assad regime transferred evidence (the two gas cylinders used in the attack) from the place where it was examined without notifying the organization, despite warning him not to move it without written permission from it, to claim later that it was destroyed, which proves his premeditated intention to hide it.
The report pointed out that the Assad regime obstructed the work of the investigation committees and inspection committees by refusing to grant visas to enter Syria and inspecting chemical weapons production and storage sites.
The White Helmets considered that the step taken by the Assad regime is only a small part of its relentless endeavor since its control over the city of Douma in 2018 to hide evidence of its use of chemical weapons, whether by obliterating physical evidence, or arresting, intimidating and blackmailing witnesses with their families.
The statement called on the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the UN Security Council to take serious and rapid steps towards holding the Assad regime accountable, and that the Syrian Civil Defense, as the first responder to chemical attacks and whose volunteers were also victims during their response, is anxiously awaiting to see the criminals who used this weapon subject to international justice. the victims and serve as a deterrent to any party that might think in the future to use this weapon.
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons revealed that it had received a memorandum from the Assad regime, claiming that evidence of the Douma chemical attack in southern Syria in 2018, following “Israeli raids” was lost, apparently as an attempt by the Assad regime to dilute the investigations and obliterate the features of the crime it committed years ago.
