Courtney Spivey Urschel is the Executive Director of Evidence Linked. She previously served as the Deputy Chief overseeing the Human Rights portfolio at the Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section of the U.S. Department of Justice (USDOJ) from 2019-2025.
In that position, Courtney tripled the number of human rights prosecutions during her tenure, overseeing investigations and prosecutions arising out of allegations of war crimes, torture, genocide, rape, enlisting child soldiers and extra-judicial killings, seeking justice for survivors from Ukraine, Syria, Rwanda, Bosnia, Liberia, Haiti and elsewhere, resulting in over 15 prosecutions. She directly supervised the first two war crimes indictments ever brought under the U.S. War Crimes Statute, addressing atrocities in Ukraine and Syria. Courtney also directed the indictment and prosecution of four torture cases. Representative cases include:
·United States v. Samir Ousman Alsheikh: Universal jurisdiction torture prosecution of former Brigadier General in charge of Adra Prison in Syria for subjecting political dissidents to horrific treatment, including placement in “Flying Carpet” torture device. Convicted at trial and sentenced in September 2026.
United States v. Michael Correa: First ever non-US citizen convicted of torture in US courts, found guilty at trial of torture based on Correa’s mistreatment of prisoners while serving as a member of the “Junglers” armed unit in the Gambia following a failed coup attempt against then-President Yahya Jammeh in 2006. Convicted at trial and sentenced in September 2025.
United States v. Jamil Hassan and Abdul Salam Mahmoud: Second-ever US war crimes case, brought in November 2024, against former Syrian government officials for atrocities committed against Syrian and US nationals being held in Mezzeh Prison in Damascus, Syria during Syrian civil war.
United States v. Suren Mkrtchyan, et al.: First-ever federal US war crimes case, brought in December 2023, against four Russian-affiliated military personnel for atrocities committed against US citizen living in Ukraine following Russia’s invasion in 2022.
United States v. Ross Roggio: Sentenced in April 2024 following his conviction at trial for committing torture in concert with Kurdish military personnel, Roggio horrifically abused an Estonian citizen over a 39-day period in the Kurdish region of Iraq in 2015.
She represented the USDOJ at Eurojust’s Genocide Network at seven biannual meetings and the Ukraine Joint Investigative Team at numerous conferences held in the Hague and Vilnius, Lithuania. In these positions, Courtney collaborated and liaised with numerous national authority members in support of common evidentiary needs in war crime, torture, and other human rights-related criminal investigations. Courtney also represented USDOJ at the Inaugural PacificJust meeting in Canberra, Australia, and in 2026 she was appointed to the Advisory Panel of the Justice and Accountability Network Australia (JANA), which established and supports PacificJust.
Courtney has trained Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and other US and foreign law enforcement agents regarding building human rights prosecutions, international criminal law, international humanitarian law, and investigative techniques. She has also presented at workshops and virtual trainings presented by the International Committee of the Red Cross and numerous civil society organizations regarding prosecutions of atrocity crimes.
For over 10 years, Courtney served as an Assistant United States Attorney in Washington, DC, conducting federal investigations and prosecutions of offenses including war crimes, terrorism, murder, espionage, narcotics trafficking, and firearms offenses and trying over 45 cases to verdict.
She has been recognized for her work with a multitude of awards during her career, including the Attorney General Award for Distinguished Service in 2025 and the Assistant Attorney General Award for Distinguished Service in 2024, both in recognition of her work advancing human rights accountability.
