Germany sentences Syria man to life over war crimes he committed in 2014

The Berlin Regional Court sentenced, on Thursday, a Palestinian-Syrian man to life imprisonment with hard labour over war crimes he committed in March 2014 in the Yarmouk Camp, which led to killing seven people.

The man identified as Mouaffaq Dawa, was a member of the Free Palestine Movement, a group allied with the Syrian regime of President Bashar Al-Assad.

In March, 2014, Dawa was serving as the commander of a checkpoint during the regime’s siege of the camp. He was also responsible for overseeing the distribution of food packages from the UN Relief and Works Agency, which works with Palestinian refugees.

In an act of revenge for the death of his nephew, Dawa fired a grenade at a group of Palestinian refugees who gathered to collect food parcels distributed by UNRWA.

The Court decision may be appealed.

In 2017, he moved to Berlin with his wife and three children where he applied for asylum. In 2021, he was arrested by the German authorities and was tried under universal jurisdiction.

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