First trial in the world opens on abuses committed by the Assad regime

Text by: Nicolas Falez Follow

This is an unprecedented trial which opens this Thursday in Koblenz in Germany: two Syrians will be tried for atrocities attributed to the regime of Bashar al-Assad. Anwar Raslan and Eyad al Gharib were arrested last year in Germany where they had taken refuge after defecting. Former members of Syrian intelligence, they are accused of murder and torture in a detention camp. It is the principle of "universal jurisdiction" of justice that allows the holding of this trial in a country other than Syria.

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A Syrian lawyer, human rights activist, Anwar al-Bunni knew prison in his country from 2006 to 2011. Refugee in Germany, it was by chance that his path crossed a few years later that of the man who had arrested him: Anwar Raslan, former Syrian colonel who appeared from this Thursday.

“  I had just arrived in Berlin. In the street I ran into someone I felt like I knew, he was with his wife. I didn't recognize him immediately, but a few days later someone told me that Anwar Raslan had arrived in Germany. This is where I understood the person I saw was Anwar Raslan…  ”

Anwar al-Bunni is working to collect evidence and testimony for trials outside of Syria. Among these elements, the Caesar file  : 55,000 photographs of tortured and executed bodies, documents transmitted by a defected member of the Syrian military police.

"  The Caesar case is one of the proofs that we are bringing to court to confirm the accounts of the witnesses," continues Anwar al-Bunni. We can prove that they really do, it's not just stories you are told, they are facts!  "

Anwar al-Bunni says he is working to have other trials open after that of Anwar Raslan and Eyad el Gharib.

These men who, like many of their compatriots who have come to Germany in recent years, were recognized before being arrested. For these Syrians in Europe, this trial should make it possible to learn more about the atrocities still little known in Damascus. Patrick Kroker is the lawyer of Syrians civil parties….

Listen to our correspondent's report in Germany.

Pascal Thibaut

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• Syria
• Bashar al-Assad
• Germany
• International justice