A STEP TOWARDS JUSTICE

U.S. Court Finds Syrian Government Liable for Journalist Marie Colvin’s Killing

Judge Amy Jackson said the February 2012 attack that killed Colvin was “intended to intimidate journalists.”

The Syrian Government was found liable for Sunday Times war reporter Marie Colvin’s 2012 death in a Washington, D.C., civil trial Thursday, The Telegraph reports. The suit, filed by Colvin’s sister, reportedly accused Bashar al-Assad’s regime of specifically targeting Colvin on Feb. 22, 2012, by tracking her satellite calls before ordering an “artillery strike” on her makeshift media center. Judge Amy Berman Jackson reportedly ordered “$302 million in damages against Syria” and called the Syrian government’s actions an “unconscionable attack” that “intended to intimidate journalists.” “A targeted murder of an American citizen, whose courageous work was not only important, but vital to our understanding of war zones and of wars generally, is outrageous,” Judge Jackson wrote. Cathleen Colvin, Marie’s sister, told the newspaper that the suit was an “extension of [Marie’s] legacy,” and said she would have been “proud of what we achieved.”