For the first time, two Syrians in Germany are said to be responsible for atrocities in the torture prisons of President Bashar al-Assad. The Federal Prosecutor's Office has charged the Koblenz Higher Regional Court with two former intelligence agents. This was announced by the Karlsruhe authority.
The two men already in custody are accused of crimes against humanity or aiding them. They had left Syria in 2012 and 2013. The men were arrested in February in Berlin and Rhineland-Palatinate. At that time, the Federal Prosecutor's Office gave her age at 56 and 42 years.
Anwar R. is alleged to have been in charge of the brutal torture of at least 4,000 people in a secret service prison in the Syrian capital of Damascus. At least 58 prisoners had died as a result. Eyad A. is accused of bringing at least 30 protesters to the torture prison.
Death of the prisoners "consciously" accepted
The investigators speak of "systematic, brutal, physical and mental abuse" in the prison. The victims were beaten with sticks, cables and whips and shocked with electric shocks. Some prisoners had been hung up by their tormentors at the wrists on the ceiling, so that they came with just the tiptoes to the floor. Others would not have been allowed to sleep for days. R. is also accused of rape.
With these methods, the intelligence service had to force confessions and get information about the opposition movement, it said. According to him, "inhumane and degrading conditions of detention" prevailed in the prison. Nobody was medically treated. The cells were partly so crowded that the prisoners could neither sit down nor lie down.
Anwar R. is said to have headed the Investigation Unit from the end of April 2011 until the beginning of September 2012. In this function he supervised the processes in the prison. "He was also aware that prisoners died because of the massive violence."
The higher regional court must still allow the indictment. According to the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), it would be the first criminal case for state torture in Syria worldwide.
The ECCHR supports and looks after torture survivors who want to appear in the proceedings as a co-plaintiff. "The indictment is an important sign," said Secretary General Wolfgang Kaleck in Berlin. His organization will continue to work to bring the main torturers under Assad to justice.