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The National
a day 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
a day 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.
The Independent
a day ago
- The Independent
German court sentences Syrian doctor to life in prison for torture and war crimes in his homeland
A German court sentenced a Syrian doctor to life imprisonment for torture and war crimes in his Syrian homeland on Monday for killing two people and torturing nine in Syria between 2011 and 2012. The Frankfurt Higher Regional Court also established the particular gravity of the guilt, which in practice virtually rules out early release after 15 years — as is often the case in Germany when people are sentenced to life imprisonment. The 40-year-old Syrian, who was identified as Alaa M. in line with German privacy rules, was placed in preventive detention, German news agency dpa reported. In his verdict, presiding judge Christoph Koller described the actions of the accused in the military hospital in the Syrian city of Homs in the early stages of the civil war that began in 2011. He said the doctor had sadistic tendencies and acted them out during the torture. 'Above all, the accused enjoyed harming people that seemed inferior and low-value to him,' Koller said, according to dpa. During the trial, which lasted almost three and a half years, victims had described the most severe abuse, including beatings, kicks and the setting of wounds and body parts on fire, dpa reported. Koller emphasized that without the willingness and courage of witnesses to share the details of their suffering the facts of the case could not have been clarified. M. had lived in Germany for ten years and had worked as an orthopedic surgeon in several clinics, most recently in Bad Wildungen in northern Hesse. In summer 2020, he was arrested after some of his victims had recognized him from a TV documentary about Homs, dpa reported. The doctor supposedly tortured prisoners who were considered part of the opposition to former Syrian dictator Bashar Assad. The trial against him began in January 2022. Alaa M. described himself as not guilty during the trial, alleging that he was the victim of a conspiracy, dpa wrote. The verdict is not yet final.
The Guardian
a day ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
German court sentences Syrian doctor to life in jail for crimes against humanity
A German court has 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. More details soon …
