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Koblenz, Germany The last day of the first international trial for war in Syria began at dawn. A small crowd began assembling at the courthouse in the southwest corner of Koblenz, Germany, at about 3am, eager to find their seats inside.
When Merlina Herbach and Hassan Kansour arrived at 4:30 am (03:30 GMT), it was dark outside.
“We have been prosecuting each case for the past two years,” Herbach said. Both are prosecutors at the Syrian Justice and Accountability Center. We did not want to miss a seat.
In 2019 German government officials accused a former Syrian soldier, Anwar Raslan, of engaging in crimes against humanity. To do so, he employed a concept called universal jurisdiction that allows countries such as Germany to prosecute war crimes wherever they are.
Before leaving in 2012 and seeking refuge in Germany, Raslan was in charge of the Syrian Secretariat, Branch 251, in Damascus. As a result, the plaintiffs allegedly participated in the torture, murder and rape.
He is a high-ranking official to be held accountable for the atrocities committed in Syria.
Raslan’s trial began in April 2020 and this Thursday – 21 months, 108 cases and more than 80 witnesses – was over.
As the sun began to rise, about 50 people, mostly Syrians, were lined up to enter the courtroom. Women from the Syrian Campaign, a mobilization group, carried pictures of their loved ones still missing from home and set up a small, cool house. About a dozen cameras were filmed on the line by the protesters.
“I was a little nervous when I first arrived,” one of the members who sat in the room meditated. “What if something tragic happens? How will this feel for all of us, inside and outside Syria? “
When the court session started around 10:30 am (9:30 GMT), the court was full. All 36 seats in the exhibition hall, separated from the plastic display by the plague, were filled with people and the media. About a dozen Syrian protesters and their lawyers were also present.
Judge Anne Kerber, the chief justice of the five-judge panel, quickly announced that Raslan had been sentenced to life in prison. The judge then spent the next six hours explaining why the decision was handed down, and the two translators restated everything in Arabic.
Raslan was “an official in the dictatorship,” Kerber said. “But it was not just a small device in government arms.”
He knew what was going on in the prison and agreed, Kerber told the court.
As a result, judges in the Supreme Court found the Syrian man guilty of collaborating with the Syrian government in killing 27 people and torturing 4,000 others, as well as in various cases of sexual and physical abuse and illegal detention. .
However, he was not found guilty on “the special occasion”, which would not have meant that he had no chance of being released.
“These cases are a long time ago and they have not committed any crime since then,” said Judge Kerber. “She really helped others [get out of the prison] and he treated others with kindness. ”
‘First’
The state of the court after the trial was a relief, not a happy one.
“I have been doing this for two years and I have been free,” said Joumana Seif, a researcher at the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, who assisted several of the victims in the case. “Especially when I see the survivors satisfied. It is the legal recognition of their sufferings and sufferings. ”
“It is the first step and one that we can strive for in the future,” said Musallam al-Quwatli, a survivor of a traumatic event at Branch 251 in 2011.
At a brief press conference after the court hearing, the lawyers who assisted the survivors stated that they were satisfied when they emphasized the need for more cases like this. Raslan’s lawyers immediately appealed, as expected.
“I always thought it was fair. It restored my faith in justice, “said Rowaida Kanaan, a five-time Syrian journalist and detractor.
Kannan said he hopes to see how Raslan himself can handle it. Throughout the trial, the old, young, bald and bearded man is often immovable, slipping into his khaki jacket, writing notes and closing his eyes from time to time. He didn’t look hard.
“When the judge told him that he had killed 27 people, there was nothing. There is nothing to do, “said Kanaan.
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