A former member of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s secret police was found guilty by a German court on Wednesday of facilitating the torture of prisoners. The conviction is the first time a court outside Syria has ruled in a case over Syrian government officials have committed crimes against humanity and human rights activists hope the ruling will set a precedent for other issues in the decade-long conflict.
Eyad Al-Gharib was convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced by the Koblenz State Court to 4 1/2 years in prison. German prosecutors cited the principle of universal jurisdiction for serious crimes to settle the case, involving victims and accused in Germany.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said the trial was a step towards impunity in the conflict. His country has sheltered hundreds of thousands of Syrians fleeing violence and hardship in their homeland and is supporting international efforts to gather criminal evidence of crimes in Syria.
Russia and China have used their vetoes to block UN Security Council efforts to refer Syria to the International Criminal Court.
“Therefore, the issues outside Syria are a big bright spot, but also a clear sign for the victims … that they will get justice,” Maas told The Associated Press.
Al-Gharib could have confronted behind bars for more than a decade, but judges have taken mitigating factors into account, including his testimony to the German authorities investigating the allegations.
The 44-year-old is accused of being part of a unit that arrested people after protests against the government in the Syrian city of Douma and took them to a detention center known as Al Khatib, or branch 251, where they has been tortured.
Al-Gharib last year was tried along with Anwar Raslan, a more senior Syrian official accused of overseeing the abuse of detainees in the same prison near Damascus.
Raslan is accused of overseeing the “systematic and brutal torture” of more than 4,000 prisoners between April 2011 and September 2012, which resulted in the deaths of at least 58 people.
During his pre-trial police hearing, Al-Gharib testified against Raslan, involving more than ten deaths of prisoners. A ruling in Raslan’s case is expected later this year.
Thomas Lohnes / AP
The court also considered photos of thousands of alleged victims of torture by the Syrian government. The images were smuggled out of Syria by a former police officer, who goes through Caesar’s alias.
“Today’s ruling is the first time a court has confirmed that the actions of the Syrian government and its collaborators are crimes against humanity,” said Patrick Kroker, a lawyer for the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights. survivors during the trial. .
“Evidence by torture conquerors and intelligence officials, as well as the emperor’s photographs, proves the extent and systemic nature of forced disappearances, torture and sexual violence in Syria,” he said. “The relevance of this evidence extends far beyond the proceedings in Koblenz.”
In the oral ruling, the judge made it clear that al-Gharib’s crimes were part of the systematic abuse of the Syrian government against its own people. Syrian officials did not testify during the 60-day trial.
The court concluded that the unit of Al-Gharib, under Raslan’s command, was involved in chasing and detaining at least 30 people following a protest in Douma and then taking them to the detention center where they were tortured. is.
Al-Gharib, who held the rank of sergeant major until he defected, left Syria in 2013 and came to Germany in 2018. Both men were arrested a year later.
Some rights groups have raised questions about the trial, pointing out that government evaders like Al-Gharib may not realize that the statements they make during asylum applications can be used against it.
Mohammad Al-Abdallah, director of the Washington-based Syria Justice and Accountability Center and a former prisoner in Syria, said al-Gharib is a low-ranking officer with little value in the case against him.
He suggested that the Assad government should be happy to imprison prisoners such as Raslan and Al-Gharib, ‘because it would deter anyone else from leaving or joining the opposition or providing information to human rights groups. supply.’
But Wassim Mukdad, a Syrian survivor and co-plaintiff in the Raslan trial, said al-Gharib “was just one small tooth in the big Syrian torture apparatus”, but the verdict against him was important.
“I hope it can shed light on all the crimes of the Assad regime,” he said. “Only then will the trial really be a first step on this long road to justice for myself and other survivors.”
Al-Gharib’s lawyer, Hannes Linke, said the court’s ruling was “largely convincing” and that the sentence imposed on his client would give a clear signal to the perpetrators of war crimes worldwide. ‘Linke said he would nevertheless appeal against the ruling and ask the German Supreme Court to review the decision of the lower tribunal to al – Gharib’s defense that he acted to harm himself.
The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, which supports 29 survivors in the case against Raslan, 14 of whom are represented in the case as co-plaintiffs, is pursuing further cases against Syrian officials in Germany, Austria, Sweden and Norway.