German court sentences Syrian doctor to life for torturing dissidents
PHOTO CAPTION: Illustrative photo — A police officer is seen in Germany, Jan. 31, 2022. REUTERS/Thilo Schmuelgen
By Riham Alkousaa
FRANKFURT - A German court sentenced a Syrian doctor found guilty of torturing dissidents in Syria to life in prison on Monday, local media reported, the latest win for victims of the Assad regime under universal jurisdiction rules.
The 40-year-old doctor, who was arrested in June 2020 five years after fleeing to Germany among a large influx of Syrian refugees and starting a new life, was handed a life sentence without parole, DPA news agency reported.
German prosecutors have used universal jurisdiction laws that allow them to seek trials for suspects in crimes against humanity committed anywhere in the world.
They have targeted several former Syrian officials in similar cases in recent years.
A spokesperson for the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt, which heard the case over 186 sessions spanning three and a half years, could not be immediately reached for comment.
The defendant, identified as Alaa M. in accordance with German privacy laws, was accused of torturing opponents of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad while serving as a physician at a military prison and hospitals in Homs and Damascus in 2011 and 2012.
In court, Alaa M. pleaded not guilty, saying he was the target of a conspiracy.
The plaintiffs were supported by the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), which has brought similar cases to German courts in the past.
ECCHR lawyer Patrick Kroker called Monday's ruling "a further step towards a comprehensive reckoning with Assad's crimes".
"Judgements like these are milestones on which a further reappraisal of the crimes, which will hopefully one day also be possible in Syria, can build," he said in a statement emailed to Reuters.
Alaa M. arrived in Germany in 2015 and worked as a doctor, becoming one of roughly 10,000 Syrian medics who helped ease acute staff shortages in the country's healthcare system.
Prosecutors charged Alaa M. with over a dozen counts of torture and accused him of killing a prisoner.
He is also accused of burning and injuring inmates' genitals in two separate cases. In one instance, he allegedly performed a bone fracture correction surgery without adequate anaesthesia.
The doctor also worked at the Mezzeh 601 military hospital in Damascus, a facility known for its role in the Syrian regime's torture apparatus.
According to Human Rights Watch, the hospital's morgues and courtyard appeared in a cache of photographs that documented widespread, state-sponsored abuse of civilians. The images were smuggled out of Syria by a former Syrian military photographer codenamed Caesar.
The Assad government, which was toppled in December 2024, denied it tortured prisoners.
(Reporting by Riham Alkousaa, writing by Rachel More, editing by William Maclean and Aidan Lewis // REUTERS)
