A Syrian man who moved to the UK after serving in one of former president Bashar Al Assad's most feared intelligence agencies is to appear in court in London on Tuesday accused of crimes against humanity.
The man, 58, was charged in relation to his time working in Syrian Air Force Intelligence in Damascus. He faces three charges of murder as a crime against humanity, three charges of torture and one offence of conduct ancillary to murder as a crime against humanity.
It will mark the first time a court in the UK prosecutes a former member of the Assad regime for war crimes committed during the Syrian civil war. The man is to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court.
He is alleged to have led a group aiming to quell demonstrations in the Damascus suburb of Jobar from April 2011. The war crimes team at Counter Terrorism Policing London received a referral in November 2020 containing allegations against the man for actions committed while serving as a member of the Syrian armed forces.
He was arrested in Buckinghamshire in December 2021, but was released on bail.
Commander Helen Flanagan, head of Counter Terrorism Policing London, said the UK would not be a "safe haven" for alleged war criminals. The investigation was “incredibly complex and challenging”, she added.
“The charges are extremely serious and show that we fully support the UK’s ‘no safe haven’ policy in relation to alleged war criminals. Where we are presented with allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity that fall within our jurisdiction then, as we have shown here, we will not hesitate to investigate those rigorously and robustly.”
Most of the prosecutions against alleged war criminals of the Syrian civil war were brought to courts in continental Europe using the principle of universal jurisdiction. Anwar Raslan, who led an office in the Syrian intelligence group Branch 251, received a life sentence in Germany in a landmark 2022 trial.
Last year, Syrian doctor Alaa Mousa faced allegations of torturing detainees at military hospitals and was jailed for life in Germany.
