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 on a case alleging Syrian government officials he committed crimes against humanity – and human rights activists hope the ruling will set a precedent for other cases in the ten-year conflict.
Eyad Al-Gharib was sentenced for accessory crimes against humanity and sentenced by the Koblenz state court to four and a half years in prison. German prosecutors invoked the principle of universal jurisdiction for serious crimes to present the case, which involved victims and defendants who were in Germany.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said the trial was a step against impunity for the conflict. His country has sheltered hundreds of thousands of Syrians fleeing violence and hardship in their homeland and has supported international efforts to gather judicial evidence of crimes in Syria.
Russia and China have used their vetoes to block UN Security Council attempts to divert Syria to the International Criminal Court.
“That’s why the cases outside Syria are big bright spots, but also a clear signal to the victims … that they will get justice,” Maas told The Associated Press.
Al-Gharib may have faced more than a decade behind bars, but judges took into account 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 after 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 senior Syrian officer who is 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 interrogation, al-Gharib testified against Raslan, implicating him in more than ten prisoner deaths. A verdict on Raslan’s case is expected later this year.
Thomas Lohnes / AP
The court also considered photographs of thousands of alleged victims of torture by the Syrian government. The images were taken from Syria by a former police officer, who went by the nickname of 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. represent several survivors at trial.
“The testimony of torture survivors and intelligence officers, as well as photos of Caesar, demonstrate the scale and systemic nature of enforced disappearances, torture and sexual violence in Syria,” he said. “The relevance of these tests extends far beyond the procedures in Koblenz.”
In 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 population. Syrian officials did not testify during the 60-day trial.
The court concluded that Al-Gharib’s unit, which was under Raslan’s command, was involved in the persecution and detention of at least 30 people after a demonstration in Douma, and then took her 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 arrived in Germany in 2018. The two men were arrested a year later.
Some advocacy groups have raised questions about the trial, noting that government deserters like Al-Gharib may not realize that statements they make during asylum applications can be used against them.
Mohammad Al-Abdallah, director of the Washington-based Center for Justice and Responsibility in Syria and a former prisoner in Syria, said Al-Gharib was a low-ranking officer with little value in the case against him.
He suggested putting deserters like Raslan and Al-Gharib in prison would like the Assad government, “because that will deter anyone else from diverting or joining the opposition or providing information to human rights groups.”
But Wassim Mukdad, a Syrian survivor and co-plaintiff in the Raslan trial, said that while Al-Gharib was “just a small gear in the vast Syrian torture apparatus” 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 me and the rest of the 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, however, appeal the verdict and ask the top German court to review the lower court’s decision to dismiss Al-Gharib’s defense, which acted to prevent 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 plaintiffs in this case, is working to prosecute other cases against Syrian officials in Germany, Austria, Sweden Norway.