This was in absentia, but what do you make of the sentence?

Well, it's, it's to be expected, uh, given the, uh [laughs], given the scale of the crimes.

I mean, uh, as I've often said, that what we saw in Syria were the worst atrocities of, of this, uh, twenty-first, uh, century, with more than a half a million people killed, uh, at least 130,000, uh, tortured to death, uh, by their own government in the, in the dungeons of, of the Assad regime, including the children, uh, who were, um, tortured, uh, having, uh, demonstrated, uh, hoping [laughs] that there would be, uh, uh, something like a democracy or freedom in their country, and, uh, uh, were, were tortured, and their bodies returned to their parents in, in March of, of two thousand eleven, which, which began the uprising, which was a, a peaceful uprising, frankly, until, un-until the, the, the peaceful demonstrators were all, uh, scooped up.

Uh, more than 200,000, uh, um, and m- more, more than even those that were demonstrating, uh, were sent into the dungeons, and then it became an armed conflict.

But, um, this case was the first one, uh, and it dealt specifically with the events in Daraa, a city in, in south, uh, uh, western Syria, uh, where, uh, the uprising, uh, began, uh, where, where the children, uh, you know, wrote slogans on the walls and, and, and where the, and where their parents and others took to the streets and, and, and, and sought democracy.

And, and so this case was about the events in Daraa.

Uh, I was with the investigative judge, uh, uh, early last year when he was building this case, uh, and, and, and said, "Well, I will soon be charging Assad in it because he's responsible." Uh, and of course he was, uh, ultimately for what was happening there, that he wasn't gonna respond with any kind of, uh, any kind of reform or, or any kind of hope for, uh, for some kind of a, a acceptance of dissent in his country.

Steven, uh, given the volume of evidence, should this case have been overseen by an international court? Would that have made a difference?