Justice or stability? Syria confronts the legacy of Assad - The Irish Times

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When rebels took power in Syria two years ago, Othman began to hunt for the man who had broken all his teeth. He could see his former captor’s face in his mind, knew the way his body moved as he meted out electric shocks. But he needed to know the name of the man who had tortured him in the air force prison. Othman, who gave only his first name, tracked another former officer from the prison down in a small Shia town. “He was the one who gave us his complete CV: name, description, where he lives,” says the former rebel, now an industrial painter, from the Bayada neighbourhood in the central ci…