Former member of Syrian secret police convicted in Germany over torture

A FORMER member of Syrian president Bashar Assad’s secret police has been convicted by a German court of facilitating the torture of prisoners in a landmark ruling that human rights activists hope will set a precedent for other cases.

Eyad Al-gharib was convicted of accessory to crimes against humanity and sentenced by the Koblenz state court to four and a half years in prison, the dpa news agency reported.

It was the first time that a court outside Syria ruled in a case alleging Syrian government officials committed crimes against humanity.

German prosecutors invoked the principle of universal jurisdiction for serious crimes to bring the case that involved victims and defendants who were in Germany.

Details of the ruling were not immediately available, but Al-gharib could have been sentenced to more than a decade behind bars. However, judges considered his defection and court testimony as mitigating factors.

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 centre known as Al Khatib, or Branch 251, where they were tortured.

He went on trial last year with Anwar Raslan, a more senior Syrian ex-official who is accused of overseeing the abuse of detainees at the same jail near Damascus.

Raslan is accused of supervising 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. A verdict in his case is expected later this year.

Balkees Jarrah, associate international justice director at Human Rights Watch, said the conviction of Al-gharib “gives Syrians some hope of a path to fuller justice”.

Syrian government officials did not testify during the trial.