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This decision paves the way for the world's first trial of Syrian officials for abuses committed since the beginning of the conflict in 2011. REUTERS / Ali Hashisho

The German Federal Prosecutor's Office announced on Tuesday that two men had been indicted for abuses committed at the beginning of the decade in a detention center of the Assad regime.

With our correspondent in Berlin, Pascal Thibaut

This decision opens the way for the first-ever trial of Syrian officials for abuses in the country. Two men, former members of the secret service of Bashar al-Assad, have been indicted for crimes against humanity in Germany, announced Tuesday, October 29 the federal prosecutor. They had been arrested last February.

Arrived as a refugee

Four thousand people were tortured in the prison that Answar Raslan was running near Damascus between April 2011 and September 2012. At least 58 of them died as a result of the ill-treatment inflicted on them.

Anwar Raslan left Syria and defected to the Assad regime before arriving in Germany in 2014 as a refugee. He was arrested at the beginning of the year. The other accused Syrian, Eyad al-Gharib, left Syria and arrived in Germany last year.

"An important sign"

The arrest of these two people and the subsequent judicial proceedings were allowed thanks to the testimony of other Syrians who recognized their executioners in Germany. The European Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Freedoms played a central role in supporting this research. Genocide, torture and crimes against humanity may be prosecuted in another country even if the victims and the offending persons are not nationals and if their crimes were committed abroad.

" The indictment against these two leaders is an important sign, especially for victims of torture of the Assad regime ," said the secretary general of the European Center, Wolfgang Kaleck in a statement. The organization believes that the trial for crimes against humanity against the two Syrians could open next year.