(Berlin) German and Swedish authorities have arrested eight people suspected of crimes against humanity on behalf of the Bashar al-Assad regime, continuing efforts to bring justice to victims of the civil war in Syria.
As part of this joint operation, five suspects were arrested in Germany. Three other people were arrested in Sweden.
According to a statement from the federal prosecutor’s office, the suspects “are strongly suspected of murder or attempted murder of civilians as crimes against humanity and war crimes” committed during the civil war in Syria.
The people arrested in Sweden are “suspected of having committed a crime against humanity in Syria in 2012,” added a statement from the Swedish prosecutor’s office, without giving further details.
Among the men arrested in Germany are four stateless people of Palestinian origin, members of an armed militia which exercised control of the Al Yarmouk district of Damascus “on behalf of the Syrian regime”, the prosecution said.
They are referred to as Jihad A., Mahmoud A., Sameer S., Wael S. The fifth is a former Syrian intelligence agent, referred to as Mazhar J., “employed by Division 235, known as the ‘Palestine’ Division.”
Sons for jewelry
“All the accused participated in the violent repression of a peaceful demonstration against the Syrian government on July 13, 2012 in Al Yarmouk,” the same source added, specifying that they “deliberately fired on the demonstrators.”
“At least six people died from their injuries and other victims were seriously injured,” she also said.
In addition, “massive, sometimes repeated, physical violence” was inflicted on civilians in Al Yarmouk between mid-2012 and 2014 by several suspects, the source noted.
“Mahmoud A. handed over one of the individuals concerned to the Syrian military intelligence service for detention and torture. He also forced a woman at a checkpoint, including by threatening her with rape, to buy back her minor son in exchange for family jewels,” the statement said.
The suspects are also suspected of handing over three civilians from Al Yamouk to the regime authorities who were then murdered “in a mass execution” on April 16, 2013.
The arrests were carried out thanks to judicial cooperation between German and Swedish authorities, with the support of the Europol and Eurojust agencies and several European countries.
They are the result of work carried out by a cell of investigators called “Caesar”, the pseudonym of a former photographer for the Syrian military police who fled in 2013, taking with him some 55,000 photographs of tortured bodies, many of them documenting the deaths of prisoners in detention centres or military hospitals in Syria.
Universal competence
Investigations have been underway for several years in Germany, Austria, Norway, Sweden and France, particularly against former collaborators of the Syrian regime.
Under the principle of universal jurisdiction – which allows certain serious crimes to be prosecuted regardless of where they were committed – Germany has already tried Syrians for atrocities committed during the civil war.
The country welcomed hundreds of thousands of Syrians during the refugee influx in 2015-2016. Among those granted asylum, several suspected perpetrators have been arrested.
In January 2022, the German courts convicted a former senior Syrian intelligence officer of crimes against humanity.
The Swedish justice system also applies the principle of universal jurisdiction. In 2017, the country convicted a former regime soldier for war crimes. At the end of June, a former Syrian general accused of war crimes was acquitted by the Swedish justice system, which deemed the evidence of his involvement insufficient.
At the end of May in France, three senior officials of the Syrian regime tried in absentia for complicity in crimes against humanity and war crimes were sentenced to life imprisonment.
The civil war in Syria between the regime of Bashar al-Assad and armed opposition groups including the jihadist organization Islamic State (IS), triggered in 2011 by the repression of pro-democracy protests, has left more than half a million dead and displaced millions.