GERMAN COURT SETS PRECEDENT BY CONVICTING SYRIAN SPOOK OF TORTURE

A Syrian man faces four and a half years in prison for his role in his country's torture regime, the first verdict of its kind worldwide, after a German court ruling on Wednesday, February 24, 2021, Rachel More reported for Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa).

Eyad A was convicted of aiding and abetting a crime against humanity by the higher regional court in the city of Koblenz. The 44-year-old was a member of the General Intelligence Directorate in Syria before fleeing to Germany, where he was arrested in February 2019.

Judges found that the man permitted the torture and deprivation of liberty of at least 30 people, after he brought demonstrators to a Damascus prison in 2011. At that time, President Bashar al-Assad was cracking down on anti-government protests in the early stages of the Syrian civil war.

The landmark trial is expected to resume in April for the main defendant, identified as Anwar R, who was allegedly a leading official within the same state intelligence agency. He is accused of torturing at least 4,000 people at the Damascus prison and faces murder charges on 58 counts.

Eyad A was an employee of a subdivision of the General Intelligence Directorate that worked with Anwar R's investigative unit, according to investigations. Anwar R and Eyad A were arrested two years ago in Berlin and the western region of Rhineland-Palatinate, respectively. Koblenz has jurisdiction over the latter and federal prosecutors filed their case there for both men.

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