Supporters hold signs opposing the Syrian regime on Thursday outside the Higher Regional Court in Koblenz, Germany, after it convicted former secret police officer Anwar Raslan on numerous charges of war crimes. Photo by Sascha Steinbach/EPA-EFE
Jan. 13 (UPI) — A former member of Syria’s secret police on Thursday became the highest-ranking Syrian official to be convicted of crimes against humanity, for supervising the abuse of prisoners at a jail about a decade ago.
A German court in Koblenz rendered the verdict for Anwar Raslan, a former Syrian colonel, and sentenced him to life in prison.
Raslan, 58, was found guilty of war crimes that occurred during the early stages of the Syrian civil war in 2011 and 2012, under a law that allows Germany to prosecute suspects under the principle of “universal jurisdiction.” It allows prosecutors to investigate war crimes committed by foreigners in other countries.
Germany took up the case believing it unlikely that Syria’s autocratic regime, led by dictator Bashar al Assad, would ever make an effort to punish Raslan for his actions. It was the world’s first trial to be brought against Syrian state torture.
German prosecutors accused Raslan, a former Syrian intelligence officer, of at least 27 deaths at the Damascus prison — where thousands of opposition activists are known to have been tortured in the early 2010s.
“This day, this verdict is important for all Syrians who have suffered and are still suffering from the Assad regime’s crimes,” said former inmate Ruham Hawash, according to The Guardian. “It shows us: justice should and must not remain a dream for us.”
German prosecutors decided to try the case under a law of “international jurisdiction” to bring some measure of justice that’s unlikely to come as long as dictator Bashar al Assad, pictured, is in power. File Photo by SANA via EPA-EFE
A co-defendant in the trial, which started in 2020, was sentenced to 4 and a half years in prison last February for aiding and abetting crimes against humanity.
Over the course of Raslan’s trial, the judge heard statements from nearly 50 witnesses who’d survived punishment from Syria’s Branch 251 facility, several of whom appeared as co-plaintiffs. They described being beaten by guards with fists, sticks, cables and metal pipes — and held in small cells with closed ventilation shafts intended to create panic.
Raslan eventually defected and fled Syria before settling in Germany, where authorities began investigating him in 2017 after he described his role in Syria’s security apparatus. He was arrested in early 2019.
Defense attorneys had argued for an acquittal, insisting that none of the detainees at Branch 251 were directly tortured by Raslan.
“Today’s judgment creates a solid basis for other European prosecutors to pursue further proceedings,” said Wolfgang Kaleck, general secretary of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, according to The Guardian.
“Dealing with crimes in Syria in third countries is not ideal — but possible, and a duty towards those affected.”