By Aaron Miller-
A German court is preparing to launch the first international trial to prosecute Syrian officials for the widespread use of torture in detention centre, which human rights lawyers and activists are hoping will set a precedent for future cases.
The trial of two former Syrian security officials arrested in Germany after defecting and seeking asylum there begins tomorrow in Germany’s Higher Regional Court in Koblwnz Anar, Raslan. The case is based on the principle of universal jurisdiction, which holds that national courts can prosecute accused perpetrators of crimes against international law, regardless of where the crime was committed.
Former head of investigations at the Syrian General Intelligence Directorate’s Al-Khatib Branch in Damascus, also known as Branch 251, is accused of crimes against humanity in the torture of at least 4,000 people, the murder of 58 people, and of sexual assaults committed in the detention centre before he defected and fled Syria in 2012. The senior military official is a representative of the government of Syrian leader, Bashar al-Assad, and German prosecutors are determined to nail him as a serial murderers and abuser of human rights.
A lower ranking official at the same unit, Eyad al-Gharib, is accused of complicity in 30 cases of torture. The process is expected to take up to two years. This case is particularly unique because it stands out as one of those that could not be stalled by the pandemic which has put other cases on hold, a Human Rights lawyer with the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights representing Syrian witnesses and plaintffs in the case, told The Eye Of Media.Com
Kroker also said he trial will have a limited audience in the courtroom and other measures to protect participants, as part of measures to safeguard the public in light of the pandemic.
Wolfgang Kaleck, general secretary of ECCHR, told reporters Monday that he hopes this trial will be only a first step. The findings of the investigation and trial process, Kaleck said, could be used in other prosecutions in Germany and other European countries and “at a later stage, at international tribunals or regional or local tribunals in Syria or in the region.”
“All of what is happening now will hopefully result in some broader efforts at a later moment,” he said. Other European countries have already launched similar investigations, while Germany has also targeted a higher-profile Syrian official. In June 2018, Germany’s Federal Court of Justice issued an international arrest warrant for Jamil Hassan, who served as head of the Syrian Air Force Intelligence Service until July 2019. The warrant was largely symbolic, however, as Hassan – unlike the defendants in the upcoming trial – was still living in Syria.