Latest news with #AlaaMousa
NZ Herald
12 hours ago
- NZ Herald
Syrian doctor gets life sentence in Germany for slayings, torture under Assad
A German court sentenced a Syrian doctor to life in prison yesterday for crimes against humanity and war crimes, under a legal concept that allows countries to prosecute war crimes that occur outside their territory. According to German prosecutors, Alaa Mousa, 40, abused and killed prisoners suspected to be enemies
Washington Post
2 days ago
- Politics
- Washington Post
Syrian doctor gets life sentence in Germany for slayings, torture under Assad
A German court sentenced a Syrian doctor to life in prison on Monday for crimes against humanity and war crimes, under a legal concept that allows countries to prosecute war crimes that took place outside their territory. According to German prosecutors, Alaa Mousa, 40, abused and killed prisoners suspected to be enemies of then-Syrian President Bashar al-Assad while working as a doctor in military hospitals and prisons in the early 2010s. During this period, Mousa was stationed for a time at military hospital Mezzeh No. 601, later made infamous when a Syrian defector helped photograph thousands of corpses in the facility mutilated by torture.
Al Jazeera
2 days ago
- Al Jazeera
German court convicts Syrian doctor of crimes against humanity
A German court has handed down a life sentence to a Syrian doctor convicted of committing acts of torture as part of Bashar al-Assad's brutal crackdown on dissent. The Frankfurt Higher Regional Court imposed the sentence on Alaa Mousa on Monday, ruling that the doctor's actions formed part of the Assad regime's 'inhumane and repressive' campaign against opposition figures. The court had found the 40-year-old guilty of crimes against humanity, including murder and torture, in connection with acts committed during Syria's civil war between 2011 and 2012. Presiding judge Christoph Koller said the verdict underscored the 'brutality of Assad's dictatorial, unjust regime'. The trial, which ran for more than three years, was one of the most significant cases brought under Germany's principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows serious crimes committed abroad to be prosecuted domestically. Mousa was accused of torturing patients at military hospitals in Damascus and Homs, where political prisoners were regularly brought for supposed treatment, on 18 occasions. He had denied the charges during the trial, which came to a close months after al-Assad was deposed in December 2024. Prosecutors said rather than receiving medical treatment, detainees were instead subjected to horrific abuse, with some dying as a result. Witnesses described numerous acts of severe cruelty, including Mousa pouring flammable liquid on a prisoner's wounds before setting them alight and kicking the man in the face, shattering his teeth. In another incident, the doctor was accused of injecting a detainee with a fatal substance for refusing to be beaten. One former prisoner described the Damascus hospital where he was held as a 'slaughterhouse'. Mousa arrived in Germany in 2015 on a skilled-worker visa and continued practising medicine as an orthopaedic doctor until his arrest in 2020. Colleagues reportedly said they had no knowledge of his past, with one describing him as 'unremarkable'. During the trial, which opened in 2022, Mousa denied personally harming patients but admitted witnessing abuse. He claimed he was powerless to intervene, saying: 'I felt sorry for them, but I couldn't say anything, or it would have been me instead of the patient.'
The National
2 days ago
- Politics
- The National
German court jails Syrian doctor for crimes against humanity
A German court on Monday sentenced a Syrian doctor to life in prison for crimes against humanity after he tortured prisoners at military hospitals under former ruler Bashar Al Assad's regime. The crimes committed by Alaa Mousa, 40, during the Syrian civil war were "part of a brutal reaction by Assad's dictatorial, unjust regime", said Christoph Koller, the presiding judge at the higher regional court in Frankfurt. Mousa was accused of torturing patients at military hospitals in Damascus and Homs on 18 occasions between 2011 and 2012. In one instance, he was said to have burnt the genitals of a teenage boy and in another case, to have killed a detainee who resisted a beating with an injection. As well as crimes against humanity, the court found Mousa guilty of murder, torture and war crimes. The defendant denied the charges in the trial, which came to a close a few months after Mr Al Assad's overthrow in December 2024. Mousa arrived in Germany in 2015 on a visa for highly skilled workers at the same time as hundreds of thousands of Syrians were fleeing the civil war. He continued to practise medicine in Germany, working as an orthopaedic doctor until he was arrested in June 2020. A former employer told German media they knew nothing of his past in Syria's military hospitals, and that colleagues described him as "unremarkable". According to prosecutors, Mousa's patients – often political opponents detained by the government – were tortured and "not infrequently killed". In one case, he was accused of pouring flammable liquid on a prisoner's wounds before setting them on fire and kicking him in the face so hard that three of his teeth were lost. Other inmates were kicked and beaten, sometimes with medical tools, according to prosecutors. During the trial, the court heard testimony from colleagues and detainees, who said they recognised the accused, according to German weekly Der Spiegel. One former inmate said he had been forced to carry the bodies of patients who died after Mousa's lethal injections, Der Spiegel reported. Another witness said the military hospital where he was held in Damascus had been known as a "slaughterhouse". At the opening of the trial in 2022, Mousa told the court he had witnessed beatings, but denied striking patients. The accused said he was too afraid of the military police "in control" at the hospital to speak out. "I felt sorry for them, but I couldn't say anything, or it would have been me instead of the patient," he said. Germany has tried several supporters of Mr Al Assad's regime under the legal principle of "universal jurisdiction", which allows for serious crimes to be prosecuted even if they were committed in a different country. The first global trial over state-sponsored torture in Syria under the Assad government opened in 2020 in Koblenz, in western Germany. The accused in the trial, a former army colonel, was found guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced to life in jail in 2022.
News.com.au
2 days ago
- News.com.au
German court jails Syrian 'torture' doctor for life
A German court on Monday sentenced a Syrian doctor to life in prison for crimes against humanity for torturing detainees at military hospitals under former ruler Bashar al-Assad. The crimes committed by Alaa Mousa, 40, during the Syrian civil war were "part of a brutal reaction by Assad's dictatorial, unjust regime", said the presiding judge at the higher regional court in Frankfurt, Christoph Koller. Mousa was accused of torturing patients at military hospitals in Damascus and Homs on 18 occasions between 2011 and 2012. In one instance, Mousa was said to have set fire to the genitals of a teenage boy and in another case, to have delivered a lethal injection to a detainee who resisted a beating. As well as crimes against humanity, the court found Mousa guilty of murder, torture and war crimes. The defendant denied the charges in the trial, which came to a close a few months after Assad's ouster in December 2024. Mousa arrived in Germany in 2015 on a visa for highly skilled workers at the same time as hundreds of thousands of Syrians were fleeing the civil war at home. He continued to practise medicine in Germany, working as an orthopaedic doctor until he was arrested in June 2020. A former employer told German media they knew nothing of his past in Syria's military hospitals, and that colleagues described him as "unremarkable". - 'Slaughterhouse' - According to prosecutors, Mousa worked at military hospitals in Homs and Damascus, where political opponents detained by the government were brought for treatment. Instead of receiving medical assistance, the patients were tortured and "not infrequently killed", they said. In one case, Mousa was accused of pouring flammable liquid on a prisoner's wounds before setting them on fire and kicking him in the face so hard that three of his teeth had to be replaced. He also allegedly doused a teenage boy's genitals in alcohol before setting them alight. Other inmates were kicked and beaten, sometimes with medical tools, according to prosecutors. During the trial, the court heard testimony from colleagues and detainees, who said they recognised the accused, according to German weekly Der Spiegel. One former inmate said he had been forced to carry the bodies of patients who died after being injected by Mousa, Der Spiegel reported. Another witness said the military hospital where he was held in Damascus had been known as a "slaughterhouse". At the opening of the trial in 2022, Mousa told the court he had witnessed beatings, but denied striking patients himself. The accused however said he was too afraid of the military police "in control" at the hospital to speak out. "I felt sorry for them, but I couldn't say anything, or it would have been me instead of the patient," he said. Germany has tried several supporters of Assad's regime under the legal principle of "universal jurisdiction", which allows for serious crimes to be prosecuted even if they were committed in a different country. The first global trial over state-sponsored torture in Syria under the Assad government opened in 2020 in Koblenz, in western Germany. The accused in the trial, a former army colonel, was found guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced to life in jail in 2022.
