The German Federal Court of Justice rejected former Syrian senior intelligence officer Anwar Raslan’s appeal against his crimes against humanity conviction on Monday.
Raslan entered Germany in 2014. In January 2022, Raslan was convicted of crimes against humanity in “the form of homicide, torture, serious deprivation of personal liberty, rape and sexual assault in coincidence with murder and other offences” in connection with the crackdown on the 2011 Arab Spring protests. Raslan was sentenced to life imprisonment.
During the Arab Spring in Syria, protesters were arrested, tortured and killed and the secret service took part in extortion, terrorization and the prevention of further protests. Torture, sexual assault, rape and deprivation of sleep and food occurred in the Al-Khatib prison in Damascus, Syria.
Raslan was a colonel who commanded the Branch 251 unit of the Syrian General Intelligence Directorate (GID) that operated the prison, managing the treatment of prisoners and interrogations from late April 2011 to September 2012. 27 prisoners, including a child, had died due to torture and the conditions of the prison.
The Higher Regional Court in Koblenz, a city in Western Germany, convicted Raslan for his actions, finding the Syrian regime met the criteria set out in section 7 of Code of Crimes against International Law for crimes against humanity due to “a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population.”
Raslan appealed his conviction on points of law, raising procedural objections. This complaint was not successful due to section 256 of the German Code of Criminal Procedure. The Federal Court’s Third Criminal Panel, which specializes in crimes against the state, held that the Higher Regional Court was permitted to read statements made by public authorities and experts, such as the Independent Commission of Inquiry of the United Nations Human Rights Council. Raslan also claimed that there was a violation of substantive law, but the 2022 judgment was found not to have any legal error. The Higher Regional Court ruled that functional immunity did not apply to the accused. The 2024 decision to reject Raslan’s appeal is final.
Germany had adopted the Code of Crimes against International Law in 2002, which allows for the prosecution of foreign suspects for crimes against public international law. The law is in line with the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and includes offences such as genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and wars of aggression.
In January 2022, UN human rights officials approved Raslan Anwar’s conviction. It had been the world’s first criminal case on state torture in Syria before Koblenz’s Higher Regional Court. Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that the 2022 verdict “should serve to spur forward all efforts to widen the net of accountability for all perpetrators of the unspeakable crimes that have characterised this brutal conflict.” She further commented that if state authorities perpetrate torture, they will be held accountable.
