Syria police officer guilty over torture
COURTS: 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.
Eyad Al-Gharib was convicted of being an accessory to crimes against humanity and sentenced by the Koblenz state court to four-and-a-half years in prison.
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 AlGharib 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. If guilty, he faces life in prison. Balkees Jarrah, associate international justice director at Human Rights Watch, said the conviction of Al-Gharib “gives Syrians some hope that this may be the beginning of a path to fuller justice”.
“Germany’s trial of two former Syrian officials for atrocities shows that it’s possible with drive and perseverance and determined prosecutors for victims to have their day in court,” she said.
Evidence reviewed during the trial included photographs of thousands of alleged victims of torture by the Syrian government. The images were smuggled out of Syria by a police officer.
Syrian government officials did not testify during the trial.
“Over the last 10 months, courageous survivors have provided testimony about horrific abuses committed in Syria’s ghastly archipelago of prisons,” Ms Jarrah said.
“This case not only speaks to the role of the two suspects but also lays bare the Syrian government’s systemic torture and killing of tens of thousands of people.”
Experts say that the verdict is a legal landmark and the prosecution was intended as an important test case.
The aim is to build up a body of evidence about the actions of the regime of President Bashar alAssad that could be used in other trials, not just in Germany.
The German human rights lawyers behind the case have spent years using the principle of universal jurisdiction to reach out across borders to pursue other allegations.
Their targets are said to have included the former US President George W Bush for crimes including violations of the UN Convention against Torture.
Courageous survivors have provided testimony about horrific abuses. Balkees Jarrah, associate international justice director at Human Rights Watch.