Assad secret policemen accused of torture are arrested in Europe
THREE alleged former members of the Syrian secret police are being held in Germany and France in what are believed to be the first Western arrests of Assad regime officials on suspicion of torture, it emerged yesterday.
Two of the men were being held in Germany on suspicion of crimes against humanity, German prosecutors said in a statement.
A 42-year-old man named only as Eyad A under German privacy laws is accused of being an accessary to the killing of two people and the torture and physical abuse of at least 2,000.
His 56-year-old former commanding officer, named as Anwar R, is accused of general involvement in torture and physical abuse as a high-ranking officer in the regime’s secret police. A third unnamed man who served under Anwar R was being held in France as part of a coordinated operation, German prosecutors said.
The arrests follow months of concerted efforts to bring about prosecutions
Prisoners held by the department ‘underwent brutal and intense torture during interrogation’
over crimes committed in Syria’s civil war in the German courts, which claim worldwide jurisdiction over war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Anwar and Eyad both claimed asylum in Germany after fleeing Syria in 2012. Prosecutors allege Anwar was a senior officer in the General Intelligence Directorate, the Assad regime’s main domestic security service, where he served as head of the regional investigation department for Damascus.
Prisoners held by the department “underwent brutal and intense torture during interrogation”, prosecutors said.
Eyad A is alleged to have served in a special unit that identified deserters and anti-regime protesters. In the summer in 2011, he allegedly spent a month at a checkpoint in the outskirts of Damascus where around 100 people a day were arrested, taken to Anwar R’s prison and tortured.
Six Syrian torture survivors were interviewed by German prosecutors as part of their investigation, according to the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights, a Berlin NGO that campaigns for justice for victims of torture and other crimes.