Alleged Syrian torturer is on trial in Frankfurt: "A bit of justice"

War-ravaged city of Homs in summer 2012

Photo: REUTERS/Shaam News Network

SPIEGEL:

What are your expectations of the Frankfurt torture trial?

Reiger:

It is the second major trial on torture in Syria, after the Koblenz Higher Regional Court just sentenced a Syrian secret service officer to life imprisonment. The Senate clearly stated that the Assad regime carried out a systematic and widespread attack on the civilian population at the beginning of the 2011 revolution. This is a pointer to the Frankfurt process. Here, too, it is about alleged crimes against humanity in the early days of the revolution, in which masses of people were arrested and locked in torture dungeons.

SPIEGEL:

Unlike in Koblenz, it is not a Syrian secret service agent who is being charged, but a doctor who, among other things, is said to have tortured prisoners in the military hospital in Homs and who has been living in Germany since 2015...

Reiger:

... which again has a special quality.

Doctors are committed to helping people through the Hippocratic Oath.

SPIEGEL:

You represent a Syrian who says he was transferred from prison to the military hospital in 2012.

What can your client testify to?

Reiger:

My client, who now lives in a refugee camp in southern Germany, puts a heavy burden on the accused.

He is said to have mistreated him as a doctor with burns.

According to my client, he has seen others being mistreated and reports that the accused is said to have killed a prisoner with a syringe.

If the court agrees, the accused faces life imprisonment.

SPIEGEL:

The accused, Alaa M., denies all allegations.

He didn't mistreat anyone and never heard of torture.

Reiger:

The Federal Prosecutor's Office and the Federal Criminal Police Office have done a good job, collecting a great deal of evidence and gathering many statements from victims and other witnesses.

Everything else must now be decided by the court.

SPIEGEL:

What is your client hoping for from the process?

Reiger:

For many victims, including my client, it is of course unsatisfactory that Assad and the regime's leadership are not in the dock.

Nevertheless, the procedure can bring about some justice for the injured party if their alleged tormentor can be held accountable.

The victims can thus be given back their dignity.

The Assad regime wanted to silence them.

The trials in Germany are now turning the matter around: Those affected can speak and are heard by the world public.

SPIEGEL:

Solving crimes in Syria is time-consuming.

German authorities cannot investigate on site, some witnesses are abroad, and many of the crimes date back years.

Why is the judiciary doing this?

Reiger:

You hear this question again and again: "Why should the Syrian civil war be brought up before German courts, what does that have to do with us?" But the answer is simple.

There are crimes that are so bad that they are prosecuted in this country according to the so-called principle of universal jurisdiction, even if they did not take place on German soil.

That's what the legislature wanted and that's why the Code of Crimes against International Law was passed.

SPIEGEL:

The International Criminal Court in The Hague can't deal with Syrian war crimes because of a Russian veto.

Is the Federal Republic now taking on the role of world police officer?

Reiger:

Germany is not the policeman of the whole world.

But anyone who comes to Germany with a dark past must expect to be held accountable.

This is an important signal: war criminals have no safe retreat in Germany.