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DOSSIER HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN SYRIA: TORTURE UNDER ASSAD The fight against impunity for state torture in Syria: German authorities set international precedent The first trial worldwide on state torture in Syria started at the Higher Regional Court in Koblenz, Germany, in April 2020. This follows the German Federal Prosecutor’s indictment of two former officials of President Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian General Intelligence Directorate in October 2019. Anwar R is accused of being involved in the torture of at least 4000 people between 2011 and 2012 at the General Intelligence al-Khatib Branch prison in Damascus. In February 2021, the court sentenced Anwar R’s associate, Eyad A, to four years and six months in prison for aiding and abetting 30 cases of crimes against humanity. This is the first time a former member of the Syrian intelligence services was convicted of a crime under international law. In June 2018, it became public that the German Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof, BGH) issued an arrest warrant for Jamil Hassan, head of the Syrian Air Force Intelligence Service until July 2019. These steps were milestones towards justice and accountability for everyone affected by Assad’s torture system, particularly the Syrian torture survivors and activists whose testimony contributed to the arrest warrant, and who work closely with the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR). The Syrian survivors and activists have filed four criminal complaints in Germany based on the principle of universal jurisdiction since 2017. Working with lawyers Anwar al-Bunni (Syrian Center for Legal Studies and Research, SCLSR), Mazen Darwish (Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression, SCM), the Caesar Files Group and ECCHR, their goal is to hold high- ranking officials of Assad’s security apparatus to account. The criminal complaints in Germany were followed by similar complaints in Austria in May 2018, in Sweden in February 2019, and in Norway in November 2019. The criminal complaints concerning torture under the Assad government are part of a series of legal interventions by ECCHR. These have targeted the “architects” of the US torture system set up as part of the “war on terror” (filed in Germany and other states), those responsible for torture in Bahrain (filed in Switzerland and Ireland), and British soldiers for torture during the Iraq war (filed with the International Criminal Court in The Hague). 1 Introduction Torture, execution and forced violations of international law committed disappearances of civilians; air strikes by all parties in the violent conflict in Syria targeting civilian buildings, and extensive since it began in 2011. They continue today. bombing of residential areas; genocide and Syrian and international organizations have sexual enslavement of minorities such as continuously documented grave human Yezidis – these are just some of the rights violations so that the perpetrators can Russia and China vetoed a resolution to be held to account. refer the situation to the ICC. The international community has However, the UN Human Rights Council condemned these crimes for years, and established the Independent International expressed deep concern about the Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab humanitarian crisis in Syria. However, all Republic (UN CoI Syria) in August 2011 in attempts to resolve the conflict through resolution S-17/1. The commission has a international negotiations have failed. mandate to investigate all alleged violations Military interventions by third parties – of international human rights law in Syria Russia, Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the US since March 2011. and France – have killed and wounded In December 2016, the UN General many, and further inflamed the conflict. Assembly established the International, In addition, the long-term unstable political Impartial and Independent Mechanism to situation provided fertile ground for the rise Assist in the Investigation and Prosecution of radical movements in Syria. Conflict of those Responsible for the Most Serious parties like the “Islamic State” and al-Nusra Crimes under International Law Committed were able to establish themselves as in the Syrian Arab Republic since March powerful players, and commit grave human 2011 (IIIM). rights abuses. UN CoI Syria has collected evidence about President Bashar al-Assad’s government is human rights violations by all conflict responsible for numerous war crimes and parties in order to make recommendations crimes against humanity, especially for the to UN member states about future legal systematic torture of political dissidents and proceedings. UN CoI Syria works closely activists – not only since the peaceful with IIIM, which is tasked with “collecting, protests in 2011, but for decades. Those consolidating, preserving, and analyzing responsible for the crimes have nothing to evidence pertaining to violations and abuses fear at home; impunity in Syria is nearly of human rights and humanitarian law,” and absolute. “prepare files to facilitate and expedite fair Systematic torture of civilians in armed and independent criminal proceedings in conflict is a war crime and crime against national, regional, or international courts.” humanity. The international community The principle of universal jurisdiction must defend the absolute prohibition of enables domestic courts to initiate judicial torture, including in armed conflict. If proceedings and hold perpetrators of all victims do not see justice, there will be no ranks accountable. In Germany and other political solution to the conflict. European Union member states have International criminal justice does not initiated universal jurisdiction provide a legal avenue for prosecuting investigations. international crimes committed in Syria: the ECCHR uses universal jurisdiction to International Criminal Court (ICC) does not counter violence with the law. Together have jurisdiction over Syria – it has not with torture survivors who had to flee Syria signed the Rome Statue of the ICC. and were granted international protection in Permanent UN Security Council members Germany, lawyers Anwar al-Bunni and Mazen Darwish, the Caesar Files Group and ECCHR filed four criminal complaints in the human rights violations committed in 2017 with the German Federal Prosecutor Syria. The German judiciary thereby plays in Karlsruhe concerning crimes against a key role. Many Syrians found refuge from humanity and war crimes. persecution in Germany – now German ECCHR chose to focus the complaints on authorities can send a strong message to torture, as its commission in Assad-run encourage further investigations in different prisons is well documented, and serves as European countries. an example of its decades-long systematic The June 2018 arrest warrant for Jamil and violent repression of the Syrian Hassan was an important first step in that population, which escalated dramatically direction. The arrests of Anwar R and after the government’s brutal suppression of Eyad A followed in February 2019; the trial the peaceful uprisings in 2011. started in April 2020. With this The four criminal complaints filed in development, the German judiciary has sent Germany were ECCHR’s first steps in a an important signal to those affected as well systematic legal intervention with respect to as the international community. 2 Human rights violations by the Assad government President Assad assumed office in 2000. medical facility employees in deliberate From the beginning, he continued his father attacks. It is safe to say that these attacks Hafiz al-Assad’s legacy by suppressing all amount to crimes against humanity and war forms of opposition. crimes. The uprising escalated in 2011, when in the I) TORTURE BY ASSAD’S wake of the Arab Spring, more and more Syrians took to the streets to protest the INTELLIGENCE SERVICES government. Syrian intelligence services The enforced disappearance and torture of responded brutally to the protestors, government critics, opposition politicians organizers and supporters of the non-violent and journalists has been a common protests. Freedom of assembly and freedom characteristic of Assad’s rule for decades. of speech were massively restricted, These practices are well known and political opponents and activists were documented in Syrian torture survivors and arbitrarily detained and tortured in civilian activists’ testimony, ad investigations by and military prisons. At the same time, the international human rights organizations Syrian army started to target the civilian such as Amnesty International and Human population with heavy artillery and Rights Watch. internationally banned weapons such as chemical weapons, cluster ammunition and Syria’s four intelligence services – the Air barrel bombs. Force Intelligence Service (Al-Mukhabarat al-Jawiya), the Military Intelligence Assad’s forces also targeted many civilian Service (Al-Mukhabarat al-Askariya), the facilities, such as hospitals and schools. Political Intelligence Service (Al-Amn al- According to Physicians for Human Rights, Siyasi), the General Intelligence Service the Syrian army has killed nearly 700 (Al-amn al-Amm), and the National For example, the Syrian defector known as Intelligence Service (Al-Amn al-Wattani), “Caesar” provided Human Rights Watch which oversees the others – practice with more than 50,000 photos. Caesar widespread, systematic torture. Each worked as an official Syrian military police agency has a central branch in Damascus, as forensic photographer.
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