Germany arrests Syrian Intelligence Chief

German authorities announced the arrest of a former high-ranking Syrian intelligence officer and two subordinates suspected of crimes against humanity (torturing thousands of victims in detention centers run by President Bashar al-Assad’s security services.)

Background 

Crimes against humanity are certain acts that are deliberately committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack or individual attack directed against any civilian or an identifiable part of a civilian population. The first prosecution for such crimes  took place at the Nuremberg trials and these have since been litigated  by other international courts as well. The law  has primarily developed through the evolution of customary international law.

Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity can be committed during peace or war. They are not isolated or sporadic events, but are part either of a government policy (although the perpetrators need not identify themselves with this policy) or of a wide practice of atrocities tolerated or condoned by a government or a de facto authority.

The Syrian intelligence agencies have been instrumental in beating back the Anti-Assad Syrian forces ever since in the Civil War began in 2011. The Bashar al-Assad government has been repeatedly accused of torturing its citizens and captured opposition fighters. Chemical warfare accusations have also gained traction in the long list of crimes committed by the Syrian government.  

Analysis 

Germany has announced the arrest of Syria’s former intelligence Chief who worked for the Bashar al-Assad government and helped in keeping a brutal regime in power.

The arrests were a result of a joint investigation by German and French prosecutors, the office of Germany’s federal prosecutor said in a statement. The German police had arrested two suspects, identified as Anwar R., 56, and Eyad A., 42, and placed them in pretrial detention, the statement said. Officials declined to give the full names of suspects pending the outcome of legal proceedings against them, as part of  policy.

They said the French police, “as part of a joint investigation team,” had detained a third suspect who was linked to Anwar, but gave no other details. The man identified as Anwar R. “is the most serious regime perpetrator detained so far by some distance,” said William Wiley, a former war crimes prosecutor who leads the Center for International Justice and Accountability, a group collecting evidence of Syrian atrocities. “It’s a big day for everyone working on these issues since 2011, really big.”

The prosecutor’s office alleged that Anwar R. was involved in the torture and the physical ill-treatment of detainees between the end of April 2011 and the beginning of September 2012, when he served as a high-ranking employee of the Syrian General Intelligence Service. “As head of the investigative department, Anwar R. determined and directed the operations in the prison, including the use of systematic and brutal torture,” the office said.

The second suspect, Eyad A., was alleged to have operated at a checkpoint on the outskirts of Damascus, the Syrian capital, which typically arrested around 100 people a day. Those people were “taken to Anwar R.’s prison and tortured there,” the German prosecutors said.

Investigators have identified Anwar R. as a colonel in the intelligence service linked to two detention centers in Damascus where prisoners suffered extreme torture. In 2012 he is believed to have defected from the regime and fled to Jordan before making his way to Europe.

The case, if it comes to trial, would represent a milestone in international efforts to achieve accountability for the horrors inflicted by Mr. al-Assad’s regime. The prosecution is “putting war criminals on notice that they will have to pay for their crimes,” said Balkees Jarrah, senior counsel in Human Rights Watch’s international justice program. “I think it’s just the beginning.”

Assessment 

Our assessment is that a crimes against humanity is a serious offence under international law, and government officials can be tried irrespective of their diplomatic immunity. We believe that this is a significant arrest and an indictment of the government of Bashar al-Assad, if Anwar R. is convicted of all his charges.