Syrian doctor arrested in Germany for ‘crimes against humanity’

Man accused of torturing detainees at a prison run by Syrian regime's intelligence services

German police and security forces are on the alert as authorities bring Syrian suspects to trial. AFP

A Syrian doctor was arrested in Germany on suspicion of committing crimes against humanity at a military hospital run by Syrian intelligence services, prosecutors said on Monday.

Identified as Alaa M because of strict German privacy laws, the suspect was accused of having “tortured a detainee … in at least two cases” while working at the hospital in the western city of Homs in 2011.

In one incident, the suspect was alleged to have tortured a man who had been arrested on suspicion of taking part in an anti-government demonstration. The doctor was alleged to have caused the man to suffer an epileptic fit, according to a statement from the prosecutors.

The doctor beat the man with a plastic pipe and kicked him after he fell to the ground, they claimed. Along with another prison doctor, the suspect was accused of beating the protester senseless.

The victim was then carried away in a blanket by prison guards and later died, although the cause of his death was unclear, the prosecutors said.

The accused man left Syria for Germany in 2015, where he continued to practise as a doctor.

His arrest in the central state of Hesse on Friday followed the start in April of the first war crimes trial linked to Syria’s war to take place outside of the country.

In the city of Koblenz, two former members of Syria’s secret police stood accused of crimes against humanity over their role in a Syrian government detention centre where opposition protesters were tortured in their thousands.

Since 2016, close to 50 torture survivors, relatives, campaigners and lawyers have filed criminal complaints connected to human rights abuses by the Syrian government and its agencies, and the Koblenz trial was described as a breakthrough in efforts to bring high-ranking officials accused of war crimes to justice.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group estimated that at least 100,000 people died from torture or as a result of inhumane conditions in government prisons.

Syria's civil war, which began with the repression of anti-government protests, has killed more than 380,000 people and displaced nearly half the country's population.
_______________

Smoke billows following air strikes on a rebel-held area in the southern city of Daraa on March 16, 2017. AFP

Syrian army soldiers fire their weapons during a battle with rebel fighters at the Ramouseh front line, east of Aleppo, on December 5, 2016. AP Photo

Russians, Syrians and others gather next to an American military convoy stuck in the village of Khirbet Ammu, east of Qamishli city, on February 12, 2020. AP Photo

A Russian soldier mans a machine gun during a patrol near the Syrian and Turkish border in north Syria on October 25, 2019. AP Photo

Turkish tanks and troops stationed near Syrian town of Manbij. AP

Crew of Bradley fighting vehicles stand at a US military base in north-eastern Syria on November 11, 2019. AP Photo

Anti-government protesters flash victory signs as they protest in the southern Syrian city of Daraa on March 23, 2011. AP Photo

Syrians climb up a mud bank as they flee across fields to reach the Syrian-Turkish border on March 10, 2014. AFP

Syrian men gather outside the courthouse in Daraa that was torched a day earlier by angry protesters on March 21, 2011. AFP

Rebel fighters inside a building during clashes with pro-government forces in the Sheikh Al Said neighbourhood of Aleppo city on November 28, 2013. AFP

Syrians bury victims in a group funeral following air strikes in the rebel-held city of Douma on January 7, 2016. AFP

A man reacts to the destruction of his home in an air strike by government forces on the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on February 22, 2014. AFP

A woman is helped through the rubble of buildings hit by a reported Syrian government air strike in Al Sakhour district of Aleppo city on April 4, 2014. AFP

Debris fills a street and flames rise from a building following an air strike by Syrian government forces in the Sukkari neighborhood of Aleppo on March 7, 2014. AFP

A man is comforted following an air strike by government forces that killed a rescue worker in Aleppo city on March 9, 2014. AFP

A tank seized by rebel fighters fires at a pro-government position near the Syrian city of Hama on February 19, 2014. AFP

An injured Syrian youth cries as he is carried on a gurney following an air strike in the Maadi neighbourhood of Aleppo city on December 17, 2013. AFP

A Syrian boy holds an oxygen mask to an infant's face following a reported gas attack in Douma on January 22, 2018, when the town near Damascus was held by rebels. AFP

Displaced Syrians wait to enter Turkey from Idlib province across the Orontes river on February 5, 2014. AFP