A former Syrian army chief, Ahmad H., was sentenced to 10 years in prison in Germany for war crimes committed during the rule of Bashar al-Assad. The court found him guilty of torture, deprivation of liberty, and enslavement.
A former Syrian army chief has been sentenced to 10 years in prison by a German court for war crimes committed during the era of former President Bashar al-Assad. The defendant, known as Ahmad H., 47, arrived in Germany in 2016 at the height of the refugee wave to Europe. Ahmad H. was found guilty of several charges including torture, deprivation of liberty and enslavement, according to a spokesperson for the Hamburg Regional Court to AFP.
Prosecutors revealed the crimes were committed between 2012 and 2015, when Ahmad H. served as the head of a local pro-government ‘shabiha’ militia in Damascus, tasked with weakening the popular opposition. The unit allegedly operated checkpoints, arbitrarily detaining civilians. Victims or their families were then forced to pay ransoms, perform forced labor, or be tortured. The group was also accused of robbing the homes of regime opponents, selling the stolen goods and pocketing the profits. Ahmad H. was reportedly directly involved in the abuse of civilians. The defendant was arrested in Germany in July 2023, following information from a witness to the Syria Justice & Accountability Centre based in Washington that led to his arrest. The information was received by the center in May 2020, when the witness discovered Ahmad H. was residing in Germany. Previously, Germany has used the principle of universal jurisdiction to prosecute serious crimes regardless of their location. In January 2022, a former Syrian Colonel, Anwar Raslan, was sentenced to life imprisonment for torture crimes supported by the Bashar regime in a Syrian prison. -AGENC
SYRIA GERMANY WAR CRIMES JUSTICE INTERNATIONAL LAW
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