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A German court has convicted a former Syrian secret police official of crimes against humanity for overseeing the abuse of detainees in a prison near Damascus a decade ago.
Thursday’s decision is being considered historic and has long been awaited by Syrians who have suffered abuses or lost family members under the regime of Bashar al-Assad’s government.
The Koblenz state court said Anwar Raslan was a senior official who oversaw the building in Douma town, known as Al Khabit, where opposition protesters were held.
He was sentenced to life in prison, German media reported. Defendant’s lawyers last week demanded that the court drop the charges against their client, arguing that he had never personally tortured anyone and had deserted in late 2012.
German prosecutors say Raslan oversaw the “systematic and brutal torture” of more than 4,000 detainees between April 2011 and September 2012. Prosecutors say dozens of people died as a result of the torture.
Another official, Eyad al-Gharib, was sentenced by a court in Kolbenz last year for atrocities and crimes against humanity to four and a half years in prison.
Both men were arrested in Germany in 2019 after seeking asylum in that country.
Victims and human rights groups have said they hope the sentence will be the first step towards justice for many who have not been able to seek justice for officials in Syria or before the International Criminal Court.
Since Russia and China have blocked UN Security Council efforts to refer cases of abuse in Syria to The Hague tribunal, countries like Germany, which apply the principles of international justice for serious crimes, have begun to develop trials for these crimes, experts said./REL
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