German court issues Eyad al-Gharib guilty in historic Syria torture trial
A court in Germany has found a former Syrian regime official guilty of being an accomplice to crimes against humanity, in a historic first victory for efforts worldwide to bring legal accountability for atrocities committed in Syria’s long war.
Eyad al-Gharib, a 44-year-old former colonel in the Syrian intelligence service, carried out orders in one of Bashar al-Assad’s notorious prisons.
A few weeks shy of the 10th anniversary of Syria’s revolution, the verdict in his case in Koblenz marks a groundbreaking moment of justice for the hundreds of thousands of people who have disappeared in the regime’s state-run torture system.
“Today is an exceptional day in the lives of Syrians,” Amer Matar, a 33-year-old Syrian man who said he was tortured by Raslan, told CNN. “This is a very important message to us as Syrians that justice can truly be achieved, even in a very distant place like Germany, even if partial, and to specific people.”
Raslan, a high-ranking former intelligence officer, is still standing trial. He is accused of overseeing the torture of at least 4,000 prisoners during Syria’s uprising. At least 58 of the prisoners died. Rape and sexual assault allegedly occurred in at least one case.
Syrian officials have repeatedly denied the allegations, insisting they target terrorists and not peaceful protesters.
The Commission for International Justice and Accountability (CIJA), investigators who provided documentary evidence used by the prosecution, called Tuesday’s verdict “historic.” “Not only because it is the first to convict a Syrian regime official for crimes against humanity, but also because it recognizes his crimes were part of a widespread and systematic attack orchestrated by the highest bodies of Assad’s regime.
Gharib remained silent and hid his face from the cameras during the 10 months of hearings, writing a letter read out by his lawyers in which he expressed his sorrow for the victims.
During the proceedings, more than a dozen Syrian men and women took the stand to testify about the appalling abuses they endured in al-Khatib, known to the Syrian opposition as “hell on Earth”.
