A German court has sentenced a Syrian doctor convicted of torturing dissidents in Syria to life in prison, Reuters and DPA reported, quoted by BTA.
The 40-year-old doctor, who was arrested in June 2020, five years after arriving in Germany with a large influx of Syrian refugees and starting a new life, was given a life sentence without parole.
German prosecutors have used universal jurisdiction laws that allow them to prosecute suspects in crimes against humanity committed anywhere in the world. In recent years, they have targeted several former Syrian officials in similar cases. The trial lasted three and a half years and included 186 hearings.
The defendant, identified as Alya M., is accused of torturing opponents of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad while working as a doctor in a military prison and hospitals in Homs and Damascus in 2011 and 2012. In court, Alya M. pleaded not guilty and said he had been framed.
The plaintiffs were supported by the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, which has filed similar cases in German courts in the past. The center's lawyer, Patrick Crocker, called today's decision "another step towards a full reckoning with Assad's crimes."
"Such court decisions are important milestones on which a further reassessment of the crimes can be built, which we hope will one day be possible in Syria," he told Reuters in a statement.
Alya M. arrived in Germany in 2015 and worked as a doctor, becoming one of about 10,000 Syrian medics who are helping to alleviate the country's acute shortage of staff in the health system.
Prosecutors have charged Alya M. with more than a dozen counts of torture, as well as the murder of a prisoner. He is also accused of burning and mutilating the genitals of prisoners in two separate cases. In one case, he allegedly performed surgery to correct bone fractures without proper anesthesia. The doctor also worked at the Mezza 601 military hospital in Damascus, known for its role in the Syrian regime's torture machine. According to Human Rights Watch, the hospital's morgues and courtyard have been documented in a series of photographs of widespread, state-sponsored human rights abuses against Syrian citizens. The photographs were smuggled out of Syria by a former Syrian military photographer codenamed Caesar.
The Assad government, which was ousted in December 2024, denies torturing prisoners.