Germany sentences pro-Assad Syrian fighter to life for crimes against humanity
Stuttgart court convicts former militiaman of ‘terrorizing’ local Sunnis in support of now-ousted strongman in 2011, after trial involving testimony from 30 witnesses
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BERLIN, Germany — A German court on Tuesday convicted a Syrian man of crimes against humanity and jailed him for life over offenses committed during his time fighting for former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.
The court in the city of Stuttgart found the former militiaman guilty of crimes including murder and torture after a trial that involved testimony from 30 witnesses.
His name was not provided.
Shortly after the outbreak of anti-Assad protests in early 2011 — which sparked the deadly 14-year civil war — the man joined a pro-government Shia militia in the southern town of Bosra al-Sham.
He proceeded to take part in several crimes against the local Sunni population with the aim of “terrorizing” them and driving them from the town, the court found.
German authorities have pursued several suspects for crimes committed in Syria’s civil war under the principle of universal jurisdiction, even after Assad’s ouster last December by Islamist-led rebels, led by now-interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa.
In 2022, former Syrian colonel Anwar Raslan was found guilty of overseeing the murders of 27 people and the torture of 4,000 others at the notorious Al-Khatib jail in 2011 and 2012.
That was the first international trial over state-sponsored torture in Syrian prisons and was hailed as “historic” by human rights activists.
The Times of Israel Community.