A former Syrian colonel loyal to the Bashar al Assad regime has been sentenced in Germany to life imprisonment for crimes against humanity, in an unprecedented trial of the entire world and that advances accountability for the abuses committed in the framework of the war in Syria.
The Prosecutor’s Office considered the defendant, identified only as Anwar R., responsible for perpetrating torture and ordering others to commit it as well. The crimes charged correspond to 2011 and 2012, in the early stages of the conflict.
Total, at least 4,000 victims have been identified, abused in an intelligence jail in Damascus. At least 30 people died in these facilities.
The trial that now culminates started in April 2020 and initially included two defendants, the youngest of whom, Eyad A., was already sentenced in February 2021 to four and a half years in prison.
To carry out the process, German judicial authorities have appealed to the principle of universal justice, by virtue of which war crimes are also liable to be tried in third countries.
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