Germany puts Syrian suspected of links to Hezbollah on trial for war crimes

A Syrian suspected of links to Hezbollah appeared in a German court on Tuesday as his trial began on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity during the civil war in Syria.

The man, identified as Ammar A, has been in detention since December and is accused by the German public prosecutor’s office responsible for terrorism cases of “crimes against humanity, war crimes, torture and detention.” The indictment was read out at a court in Stuttgart. The trial is scheduled to continue until February.

According to the prosecution, the 32-year-old is accused of leading a Shia militia that joined Hezbollah while supporting the regime of President Bashar Al-Assad during the conflict that began in 2011. The prosecution alleges that the suspect participated in attacks in 2012 that targeted Sunni Muslims in the city of Busra Al-Sham in the southern Syrian province of Daraa, which is under the Syrian regime’s control.

The suspect is accused specifically of participating in an attack on a house in which one person was shot dead before it was looted, vandalised and burned. He is also accused of arresting and mistreating Sunni civilians over the following two years, and handing them over to Syrian intelligence services, which tortured them.

The conflict in Syria broke out in 2011, and the regime suppressed with great violence popular protests that began peacefully. More than half a million people have been killed, millions have been displaced and the country’s economy and infrastructure have been destroyed.

Germany has previously tried perpetrators of crimes against humanity and war crimes committed outside its territory, particularly Syrians and Iraqis, based on the legal principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows for the prosecution of those accused of certain serious crimes regardless of where they took place. The European country received thousands of Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis during the refugee influx in 2015 and 2016.

Trials over abuses committed by the Syrian regime or groups linked to it have also taken place in other European countries, including France and Sweden.

READ: German gov’t ministers blocked arms sales to Israel over genocide in Gaza