A German court has sentenced a former Syrian intelligence officer to four-and-a-half years in jail for complicity in crimes against humanity.
Prosecutors in Koblenz successfully argued that Eyad al-Gharib, 44, had helped to arrest protesters in 2011 who were later tortured and murdered.
The case was unprecedented for its hours of witness testimony describing widespread torture in Syria.
Another Syrian – Anwar Raslan, 58 – remains on trial.
Both fled Syria’s civil war and got asylum in Germany – but were arrested in 2019.
German prosecutors invoked the principle of “universal jurisdiction” for serious crimes to bring the case.
The agency the men worked for played a crucial role in suppressing the peaceful pro-democracy protests that erupted against President Assad’s regime in 2011.
Prosecutors argued that the two men were “cogs in the wheel” enabling a vast state torture machine to operate.
Eyad al-Gharib was charged with bringing at least 30 protesters to a notorious Damascus prison to be tortured in 2011, while working for Syria’s most powerful civilian intelligence agency, the General Intelligence Directorate (GID).
His defence lawyers argued that he feared punishment for disobedience if he did not carry out orders, and highlighted his willing co-operation with German authorities and assistance in providing evidence against Anwar Raslan.
Al-Gharib says he defected from Mr Assad’s regime to help the opposition and then fled Syria in 2013, arriving in Germany in 2018.