A former member of the secret police of Syrian President Bashar Assad was convicted on Wednesday by a German court for facilitating the torture of prisoners. The conviction marks the first time a court outside Syria has ruled in a case claiming Syrian government officials committed crimes against humanity – and human rights activists hope that the ruling will set a precedent for other cases in the decade-long conflict.
Eyad Al-Gharib was sentenced for accessory to crimes against humanity and sentenced by the state court in Koblenz to four and a half years in prison. German prosecutors invoked the principle of universal jurisdiction for serious crimes to bring the case, which involved victims and defendants who were in Germany.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said the trial was a step against impunity in the conflict. His country has sheltered hundreds of thousands of Syrians fleeing violence and hardship in their home countries and has supported international efforts to gather evidence that can be prosecuted in Syria.
Russia and China have used their vehicles to block attempts by the UN Security Council to refer Syria to the International Criminal Court.
“That is why cases outside Syria are big bright spots, but also a clear signal to the victims … that they will be right,” Maas told the Associated Press.
Al-Gharib could have faced more than a decade behind bars, but judges considered mitigating factors, including his testimony to German authorities investigating the allegations.
The 44-year-old was accused of being part of a unit that arrested people following anti-government protests in the Syrian city of Douma and took them to a detention center known as Al Khatib or Branch 251, where they were tortured.
Al-Gharib was tried last year with Anwar Raslan, a former senior Syrian official who is accused of overseeing the abuse of detainees in the same prison near Damascus.
Raslan is accused of monitoring the “systematic and brutal torture” of more than 4,000 prisoners between April 2011 and September 2012, resulting in the deaths of at least 58 people.
During his preliminary police interrogation, al-Gharib testified against Raslan, implicating him in more than 10 prisoner deaths. A verdict in Raslan’s case is expected later this year.
Thomas Lohnes / AP
The court also analyzed photos of thousands of alleged victims of torture by the Syrian government. The images were taken from smuggled Syria by a former police officer, who goes by the alias Caesar.
“Today’s verdict 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 at the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, who represented several survivors of the trial. .
“The testimony of torture survivors and intelligence officers, as well as Caesar’s photographs, prove the extent and systemic nature of enforced disappearances, torture and sexual violence in Syria,” he said. “The relevance of this evidence extends far beyond the Koblenz proceedings.”
Delivering the oral verdict, the presiding judge made it clear that al-Gharib’s crimes were part of the Syrian government’s systematic abuses against its own people. Syrian officials did not testify during the 60-day trial.
The court concluded that al-Gharib’s unit, under Raslan’s command, was involved in pursuing and detaining at least 30 people following a demonstration in Douma and then bringing them to the detention center where they were tortured.
Al-Gharib, who held the rank of sergeant major until he deserted, 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, noting that government deserters such as Al-Gharib may not realize that the statements they make during asylum applications can be used against them.
Mohammad Al-Abdallah, director of the Syrian Center for Justice and Responsibility in Washington 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 imprisonment of deserters such as Raslan and Al-Gharib would be to the liking of the Assad government, “because this will prevent anyone else from harming or joining the opposition or providing information to human rights groups.”
But Wassim Mukdad, a Syrian survivor and co-plaintiff in Raslan’s trial, said that while al-Gharib was “just a small tooth in the great Syrian torture apparatus,” the verdict against him was important.
“I hope he can shed light on all the crimes of the Assad regime,” he said. “Only then will the trial be truly a first step on this long road to justice for me and other survivors.”
Al-Gharib’s lawyer, Hannes Linke, said the court’s verdict was “largely convincing” and that the sentence imposed on his client would “send a clear signal to perpetrators of war crimes around the world.” Linke said he would still appeal the verdict and ask Germany’s higher court to review the lower court’s decision to dismiss Al-Gharib’s defense that he acted to avoid self-harm.
The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, which supports 29 survivors in the case against Raslan, 14 of whom are represented as co-complainants in this case, is working to prosecute other cases against Syrian officials in Germany, Austria, Sweden and Norway.