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German court to deliver landmark verdict on Syrian doctor accused of torture
FILE PHOTO: Syrian doctor, 36, known as M. by German media sits with his head covered, accompanied by one of his lawyers Ulrich Endres, as he goes on trial in Frankfurt, Germany, January 19, 2022. Boris Roessler/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
BERLIN - A German court is set to deliver a verdict on Monday in the case of a Syrian doctor accused of crimes against humanity, including the torture of detainees at military hospitals in Syria, in a landmark trial following the collapse of the Assad regime.
The trial of the 40-year-old doctor began in January 2022 at the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt am Main, spanning over 186 sessions where the court listened to about 50 witnesses and victims, along with legal experts.
The defendant, identified as Alaa M. in accordance with German privacy laws, was accused of torturing opponents of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad while serving as a physician at a military prison and hospitals in Homs and Damascus during 2011 and 2012.
In court, Alaa M. pleaded not guilty, saying he was the target of a conspiracy.
The verdict will be the first to be handed down in a case involving former Syrians accused of state-backed torture since Assad was overthrown in December 2024. Germany has prosecuted several former Syrian officials in such cases in recent years.
The Assad government denied it tortured prisoners.
Alaa M. arrived in Germany in 2015 and worked as a doctor, becoming one of roughly 10,000 Syrian medics who helped ease acute staff shortages in the country's healthcare system.
He was arrested in June 2020 and held in pre-trial detention.
Prosecutors charged Alaa M. with over a dozen counts of torture and accused him of killing a prisoner. In one instance, he allegedly performed a bone fracture correction surgery without adequate anaesthesia.
He is also accused of attempting to deprive prisoners of their reproductive capacity in two separate cases.
The plaintiffs were supported by the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), which has brought similar cases to German courts in the past.
German prosecutors have used universal jurisdiction laws that allow them to seek trials for suspects in crimes against humanity committed anywhere in the world.
The doctor also worked at the Mezzeh 601 military hospital in Damascus, a facility known for its role in the Syrian regime's torture apparatus.
According to Human Rights Watch, the hospital's morgues and courtyard appeared in a cache of photographs that documented widespread, state-sponsored abuse of civilians. The images were smuggled out of Syria by a former Syrian military photographer codenamed Caesar.
Syrian lawyer Anwar al-Bunni, who heads The Syrian Center for Legal Studies and Research, a human rights group in Berlin that helped build the case against Alaa M., said he expected the court to respond to the prosecutor's demand for a life sentence without a possibility of parole.
"This was a doctor, not a security officer. He was expected to protect human life. Killing and torturing people was not his job, he did it voluntarily just due to his blind support for the Assad regime," al-Bunni said. REUTERS
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