Anwar Raslan, former responsible for Syrian military information, was sentenced to perpetuity for complicity of crimes against humanity by a German court. A historical verdict.
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At the end of a historic trial, the Haute Regional Court of Koblenz, Germany, condemned, Thursday, January 13, Colonel Syrian Anwar Raslan to life prison for “crimes against humanity”. The guilty of having ordered or perpetuated acts of torture against at least 4,000 prisoners in Al-Khatib prison in Damascus, and the murder of 27 of them between April 2011 and September 2012. This is the first verdict never rendered against a senior Syrian official.
Among the legal actions against the Bachar Al-Assad regime in Europe in the name of universal jurisdiction, which makes it possible to pursue the perpetrators of the most serious crimes regardless of where they were committed and nationality Authors or victims, the so-called “knob” procedure was the most advanced. The one whose outcome was the most expected. The trial had opened in April 2020 after the arrest of the former officer in February 2019 by the German police. It had been recognized by its victims, refugee Syrians in Germany.
Investigative Manager of the Syrian Military Intelligence Division 251, Anwar Raslan was the chief. Whoever coordinated the arrests, investigations and interrogations conducted under torture to snatch supposedly confessions. Under his orders, in particular, a junior officer, Eyad al-Gharib.
Coaccused at Koblenz, he was sentenced in February 2021 to four and a half years in prison during the first phase of this trial, open on 23 April 2020, after being convicted of the arrest of the arrest. Thirty protesters and transfer in the premises of Division 251, located in the Al-Khatib district, in the center of Damascus.
Syrian detainees were not only “tortured but also hungry and deprived of air,” said the President of the Court on Thursday, Anne Kerber. They have “received blows on the whole body, especially the plants of the feet”, “they were hanged by the cuffs” and suffered “electroshocks and burns”. German judges also recognized Anwar Raslan guilty of sexual violence and aggravated rape, qualifying for crimes against humanity, as many victims were hophed.
“Where are they?”
His lawyers, committed automatically, hammered throughout the trial that Anwar Raslan would have helped the prisoners before defection, putting an end to twenty-six years of career. The reason for his departure from Syria remains obscure. Did he wanted to flee the unthinkable? Save his skin? His career ? The judges swept “the ambiguity” Raslan.
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