across borders , Wiley told me , while large loads demand more intricate planning . “ Think in terms of a box of paper that sits next to the photocopier , ” he explained . “ That box has five bricks , each with five hundred pages in it , ” weighing a total of about twenty pounds .
The crash has called into question Egypt 's drive to eradicate Islamist militancy and hurt its tourism industry , a cornerstone of the economy . Islamic State 's Egypt affiliate is waging an insurgency in parts of the Sinai , although mostly far from the tourist resorts along its Red Sea coast . Russia and Western countries have long said that they believe the flight was brought down by a bomb smuggledmovement.transportperson.naon board . Egypt however has so far publicly said it has not found any evidence of foul play . Any formal charges or official Egyptian confirmation that a bomb brought down the Airbus A321 could potentially expose Egypt to compensation payments to the families of the victims .
Neither Syria nor the principal international actors either operating militarily or backing armed groups in the country — including Russia , Iran , the US and Saudi Arabia — have ratified the ICC 's Rome Statute ; in 2014 , permanent Council members Russia and China vetoed a resolution that would have referred Syria to the Court . Human rights investigators , included those staffing the commission , are routinely denied access to regime controlled areas of Syria . Much of what was previously known about conditions in regime prisons came from a horde of more than 50,000 photographs depicting dead and abused prisoners that were smuggledmovement.transportperson.naout by a government defector in 2013 . In December 2015 , Human Rights Watch was able to identify several victims who exhibited signs of torture , all of whom were detained by regime authorities between May 2011 and August 2013 . The systematic photographing of detainees ' bodies lends credence to the commission of inquiry 's assertions that " high - ranking " members of the Syrian regime are implicated in human rights abuses .