Syrian agent convicted in Germany in first trial of state-sponsored torture in Syria

A German court has found a former Syrian intelligence service agent guilty of complicity in crimes against humanity in the first case related to state-sponsored torture by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government. Similar cases are being prepared in France and elsewhere.

Eyad al-Gharib (R) in the courtroom with co-defendant Anwar Raslan (L), before the start of the trial in Koblenz in April 2020. © Pool/AFP

Eyad al-Gharib, 44, was sentenced to four and a half years in prison for being an accomplice to crimes against humanity while helping to arrest protesters at a rally in Duma and deliver them to the Al-Khatib detention centre in Damascus in autumn 2011.

Gharib, who defected in 2012, left Syria in February 2013 and arrived in Germany in 2018, said in court that he and his family could have been killed if he had not carried out the orders of the regime.

Prosecutors described him as a cog in the Syrian regime where torture was practised on an "almost industrial scale".

During the trial, more than a dozen Syrians took the stand, some in disguise, to avoid reprisals against their families in Syria by the regime. They testified about the abuses they were subject to at the Al-Khatib detention centre, also named "Branch 251".

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Prosecutors said they had suffered rape and sexual abuse, "electric shocks", beatings with "fists, wires and whips" and "sleep deprivation" at the prison.

Gharib and another defendant have been on trial at the court in Koblenz since 23 April. The judges decided to split the proceedings in two, and Anwar Raslan, who is accused directly of crimes against humanity, including overseeing the murder of 58 people and the torture of 4,000 others, is expected to be in court at least until the end of October.

For more details and background, see SJAC’s trial monitoring reports: (7/7) https://t.co/bikpU6DWyM

— Syria Justice and Accountability Centre (@SJAC_info) February 24, 2021

Syrians who have sought refuge in Europe have brought other such cases to courts in Germany, as well as France and Sweden, based on the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows a foreign country to prosecute crimes against humanity, regardless of where they were committed.

(with wires)