Hamburg (dpa) – The Hanseatic Higher Regional Court in Hamburg has sentenced a former member of a Syrian government militia to ten years in prison for crimes against humanity and war crimes. As the leader of the former ruler Bashar al-Assad The defendant took part in the mistreatment and enslavement of civilians as well as in looting with the allied Shabiha militia in Damascus between 2012 and 2015, the verdict said.
Civilians forced to work at the front
The militia was supposed to use force to suppress opposition movements in cooperation with a department of military intelligence. The front line in the Syrian civil war ran through the Al-Tadamon district. The defendants had civilians arbitrarily taken away at checkpoints. They had to carry sandbags for government troops, sometimes under fire.
The court considered the forced labor to be enslavement. According to the presiding judge, several of the victims who testified as witnesses in the trial reported ill-treatment by the defendants. He took advantage of his position in the district to help himself for free in shops owned by intimidated owners. The court heard more than 25 witnesses. The defendant denied the allegations.
Recognized by roommates in Bremen asylum accommodation
The federal prosecutor's office had demanded eleven years in prison. The 47-year-old's defense lawyers had requested an acquittal. According to the court, the defendant entered Germany in February 2016 and applied for asylum.
A Syrian roommate in a shelter recognized him and reported him. The defendant was arrested in Bremen on August 2nd last year. The verdict is not yet final.
