A group of refugees who were forced to flee Syria has launched a legal bid at the International Criminal Court in the latest attempt to prosecute President Bashar al-Assad for crimes against humanity. The 28 refugees say they fled to Jordan after they were tortured and witnessed massacres, and they have submitted dossiers of evidence to the ICC to support their claims. Syria isn’t a member of the court—based in The Hague, in the Netherlands—but lawyers say there might be a precedent set by the ICC that has seen it extend its jurisdiction to the crime of forcible population transfers. Previous attempts to go after Assad in the ICC have failed because Hague prosecutors haven’t accepted that they have jurisdiction to act. But now lawyers, led by the London barrister Rodney Dixon, think they have found a way forward. “This case represents a genuine breakthrough for the Syrian victims,” said Dixon. “There is a jurisdictional gateway that has opened up finally for the ICC prosecutor to investigate the perpetrators who are most responsible.” One victim added: “The ICC must do something about this. We have suffered for too long.”