In Germany, Syrian Doctor Gets Life For Assad-Era Torture

A German court on Monday sentenced a Syrian doctor to life imprisonment for crimes against humanity committed during the regime of ousted Syrian President Bashar Assad, the latest case under Germany’s principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows the country’s courts to prosecute crimes committed abroad, Al Jazeera reported. 

The Frankfurter Higher Regional Court found the 40-year-old defendant, identified as Alaa Mousa, guilty of committing acts of torture between 2011 and 2012 during the early days of Syria’s civil war. 

Prosecutors accused Mousa of torturing patients at military hospitals in the capital Damascus and the city of Homs, with many victims accused of being members of the opposition, and those believed to have participated in the uprising against Assad’s regime. 

Instead of receiving treatment, patients were subjected to extreme abuse, with some dying as a result. 

More than 50 witnesses detailed Mousa’s horrific acts, including pouring flammable liquid on a prisoner’s wounds and injecting a detainee with a deadly substance while the man was trying to defend himself. 

One prisoner described the Damascus hospital as a “slaughterhouse.”  

The doctor denied the allegations, claiming that they were part of a conspiracy against him, but admitted to witnessing abuses in the facilities. 

However, the court ultimately convicted him of two murders and eight counts of torture, concluding that his actions supported Assad’s “inhumane and repressive” campaign against dissent. 

The Syrian doctor had moved to Germany in 2015 and worked in various clinics as an orthopedic doctor until his arrest in 2020, after victims recognized him in a documentary about Homs, the Guardian noted. 

Observers said Mousa’s trial was made possible under Germany’s principle of universal jurisdiction that allows domestic courts to try individuals for international crimes regardless of where they have occurred. 

In 2021, a German court convicted a former Syrian intelligence officer, Eyad al-Gharib, of crimes against humanity over his role in the arrest and transport of prisoners to detention centers where they were subjected to systematic torture.