Reax outside court as ex-Syria officer convicted

German prosecutors hailed a worldwide first after a former member of Syrian President Bashar Assad's secret police was convicted Wednesday of facilitating the torture of prisoners in a landmark ruling that human rights activists hope will set a precedent for other cases.

Eyad Al-Gharib was convicted of accessory to crimes against humanity and sentenced by the Koblenz state court to four-and-a-half years in prison.

It was the first time that a court outside Syria ruled in a case alleging Syrian government officials committed crimes against humanity.

German prosecutors invoked the principle of universal jurisdiction for serious crimes to bring the case that involved victims and defendants who were in Germany.

Al-Gharib could have faced more than a decade behind bars, but judges took into account mitigating factors, including his testimony to German authorities investigating the allegations.

The 44-year-old was accused of being part of a unit that arrested people following anti-government protests in the Syrian city of Douma and took them to a detention center known as Al Khatib, or Branch 251, where they were tortured.

Al-Gharib went on trial last year with Anwar Raslan, a more senior Syrian ex-official who is accused of overseeing the abuse of detainees at the same jail near Damascus.

Delivering the oral verdict, the presiding judge made it clear that al-Gharib's crimes were part of the Syrian government's systematic abuses against its own population.

Syrian officials did not testify during the 60-day trial.

The court concluded that al-Gharib's unit, which was under Raslan's command, was involved in chasing down and detaining at least 30 people following a demonstration in Douma, and then bringing them to the detention center where they were tortured.

Al-Gharib, who had the rank of sergeant major until he defected, left Syria in 2013 and came to Germany in 2018. Both men were arrested a year later.

Wassim Mukdad, a Syrian survivor and co-plaintiff in Raslan's trial, said the verdict was the  "first step on our long way to reach justice".