A judge in Stuttgart, in southwestern Germany, sentenced a Palestinian man to life in prison on Tuesday for war crimes he allegedly committed while fighting for the country’s past tyrant, Bashar Assad. 30 witnesses, the majority of whom were Palestinian nationals who are now residing in other countries, gave evidence during the trial, which started in October. The judge stated that it was possible to appeal the decision.
What was the accused person?
The 33-year-old was found guilty of leading a Hezbollah-backed army that carried out crimes against Sunni Muslim citizens in his hometown of Busra al-Sham in southwestern Syria. During the civil war, the Syrian Iranian-backed Shiite organization Hezbollah provided its aid to Assad. The court learned, among other things, that the militia shot a 21-year-old student who was armed when they raided and plunder the student’s home in 2012, killing him. The prosecution’s witnesses included the defendant’s mother and brother.
The army also claimed that in 2013, the military used Kalashnikovs to torture and confine three people in inhumane conditions before handing them over to Assad’s martial intelligence. Additionally, the jury’s verdict stated that the team in 2014 forced a 40-year-old man and his family out of their home, leading to the man’s severe injuries making him unable to move. Stuttgart, the state’s capital, was the site of the man’s arrest in December 2023 in Baden-Württemberg, a position in which Stuttgart is the state’s capital.
studies conducted within the scope of the law
European prosecutors have attempted to prosecute a number of offenders who are thought to have committed crimes during Syria’s civil war using universal control regulations. Anwar Raslan, an ex-intelligence commander, was the first person to be found guilty of state-sponsored abuse during Syria’s legal battle, sentenced to life in prison in 2022 for murder, murder, and crimes against humanity committed at the famous Al-Khatib prison in 2011 and 2012. European courts are hearing a number of other cases involving crimes committed during the Syrian civil war, as well as in France and Sweden. The civil war in Syria, which began in 2011 after Assad’s regime began to crack down on calm pro-democracy protests, came to an end only in late 2024 when the autocratic president was ousted in a rebel offensive led by Islamists.
