German Court Sentences Ex Syrian Colonel To Life Imprisonment

A German court has sentenced a former Syrian colonel, Anwar Raslan to life Imprisonment for committing crimes against humanity.

The ruling by the state court of Koblenz happened on Thursday, where; "The former Colonel was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder, torture, aggravated deprivation of liberty, rape and sexual assault."

It has been argued by prosecutors that Raslan supervised the systematic and brutal torture of more than 4,000 people at the Al-Khatib prison in the Syrian capital between April 2011 and September 2012, which resulted in the deaths of at least 58 people.

Prosecutors say he oversaw rape and sexual abuse, electric shocks, beatings with wires, and whips at the prison.

According to a German investigator who testified at the opening of the trial, Raslan worked for 18 years in the Syrian secret services, where he rose through the ranks to become head of the domestic intelligence investigation service. He sought refuge in Germany in 2014, after defecting from his post and deserting Syria in 2012, he was arrested in 2019.

Thursday’s ruling came almost a year after a lower-ranking officer, Eyad al-Gharib, was convicted by the Koblenz court for crimes against humanity. He was sentenced to four and a half years in prison.