Germany: two Syrians suspected of war crimes arrested

Two Syrians, alleged member or supporter of the Al-Nusra Front, a former Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda, were arrested and detained on Monday July 13 in Germany on suspicion of war crimes, the Federal Prosecutor's Office announced German. Presented as Khedr AK and Sami A. S, the two men, whose age has not been specified, were arrested in Naumburg, in the east of the country and in Essen, in the former mining basin of the Ruhr area. , said the Karlsruhe prosecution in a statement.

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The first is " strongly suspected " of having been a member of the Al-Nosra Front and of having, on July 10, 2012 in the Al-Moussana region, in Syria, participated in the execution of a lieutenant-colonel of the the army of Bashar al-Assad, according to the same source. The suspect " watched the prisoner whose hands were tied up and who had been subjected to heavy ill-treatment during his transport to the place of execution, " said the prosecution.

The other, strongly suspected of having been a sympathizer of the al-Nosra Front, " filmed the execution " of the victim by adding " exalted comments " for the purposes of propaganda video, according to the same source. No further details were provided, including the circumstances of their arrival in Germany, a country that has welcomed some 800,000 Syrians since the outbreak of war in 2011.

Former al-Qaeda branch of Syria, the Al-Nusra Front has been renamed Fateh al-Cham. While the world's first trial of the abuses attributed to the Damascus regime has been held in Koblenz since the end of April, German justice has recently arrested a Syrian doctor suspected of crimes against humanity for torturing an opponent to death.