Germany: Syrian doctor arrested for crime against humanity arrested

Text by: RFI Follow

German justice continues the investigations and the procedures against former officials of the regime of Bashar al-Assad, authors of crimes against humanity. The latest example, the arrest this Friday of a doctor accused of the death of a political prisoner in 2011.

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With our correspondent in Berlin,  Pascal Thibaut

Alaa M. arrived like many other Syrians in Germany in 2015 where he was able to find work as a doctor. In 2011, the man worked in a military prison in Homs where an inmate, who had protested against the Bashar al-Assad regime, had suffered an epilepsy attack. Alaa M. and another doctor hit him severely with plastic pipes instead of helping him.

Trials for torture and crimes against humanity

The detainee's state of health then worsened considerably before he died of the injuries inflicted on him. The Syrian doctor, arrested on Friday, is accused of crimes against humanity and torture . The indictment of the German Federal Prosecutor's Office is based on the statements of two witnesses who were also detained in the military prison in Homs in Syria.

This arrest is more broadly part of various German legal proceedings against former officials of the Assad regime who have committed crimes against humanity. A trial recently opened in Koblenz against two former members of the Damascus intelligence services for torture against thousands of detainees.

The presence of many Syrian refugees in Germany also explains these procedures. Some of those responsible are recognized by their victims or by witnesses.

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• Germany
• Justice
• Bashar al-Assad

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