Anwar Raslan (; born 3 February 1963) is a former Syrian colonel who led a unit of Syria's General Intelligence Directorate. In January 2022, he was convicted of

crimes against humanity Crimes against humanity are widespread or systemic acts committed by or on behalf of a ''de facto'' authority, usually a state, that grossly violate human rights. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity do not have to take place within the ...

in a German Higher Regional Court under

universal jurisdiction Universal jurisdiction is a legal principle that allows states or international organizations to claim criminal jurisdiction over an accused person regardless of where the alleged crime was committed, and regardless of the accused's nationality, ...

. The specific charges against him were 4,000 counts of torture, 58 counts of murder, rape and sexual coercion. His case was the first international war crimes case against a member of the Syrian government during the presidency of

Bashar al-Assad Bashar Hafez al-Assad, ', Levantine pronunciation: ; (, born 11 September 1965) is a Syrian politician who is the 19th president of Syria, since 17 July 2000. In addition, he is the commander-in-chief of the Syrian Armed Forces and the ...

Early life and career

Anwar Raslan was born in 1963 in

Taldou Taldou ( ar, تلدو, Talldū, also spelled Tall Daww, Taldo, Tall Dhu or Taldao) is a town in the Houla region of northern Syria, north of Homs in the Homs Governorate. Nearby towns include Burj al-Qa'i to the east, Tallaf to the northeast, Ka ...

in the

Homs governorate Homs Governorate ( ar, مُحافظة حمص / ALA-LC: ''Muḥāfaẓat Ḥimṣ'') is one of the fourteen governorates (provinces) of Syria. It is situated in central Syria. Its area differs in various sources, from to . It is thus geographical ...

, Syria. After completing a degree in law, he served as a security service officer in

Damascus )), is an adjective which means "spacious". , motto = , image_flag = Flag of Damascus.svg , image_seal = Emblem of Damascus.svg , seal_type = Seal , map_caption = , ...

. In 2006, Raslan was responsible for the detention of Syrian lawyer and human rights defender Anwar al-Bunni. In 2008, he became colonel, and head of the intelligence department of Branch 251 (internal branch), also known as branch al-Khatib, part of the General Intelligence Directorate. Raslan was tasked with the internal safety of

Al-Khatib prison Al-Khatib prison is a detention and torture center in the Muhajreen neighborhood of central Damascus, Syria. It is operated by Branch 251 of the Syrian General Intelligence Directorate. Al-Khatib, like many prisons under the regime of Bashar al ...

, located in Damascus. In July 2012, Raslan moved to branch 285 of the state security forces. Branch 285 mostly dealt with high value prisoners, such as political detainees. According to the German journalist Christoph Reuter, who interviewed Raslan in Jordan, Raslan defected out of shame for his employer: he had wanted to investigate an attack in Damascus of January 2012, which the government refused since the attack had been staged by the Syrian secret service. For many Syrian exiles, it was out of opportunism, not out of conviction, that Anwar Raslan fled the Assad regime, of which he was an essential cog.

Arrest and conviction

Raslan defecting from the Assad government and was smuggled with his family to

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

in December 2012. He travelled to Germany in 2014 and was granted asylum there in the same year. He was arrested in February 2019 and charged in March 2020. The trial began in April 2020 in the city of

Koblenz Koblenz (; Moselle Franconian language, Moselle Franconian: ''Kowelenz''), spelled Coblenz before 1926, is a German city on the banks of the Rhine and the Moselle, a multi-nation tributary. Koblenz was established as a Roman Empire, Roman mili ...

and was held until January 13, 2022. The

European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) is an independent, nonprofit non-governmental organization with the aim of enforcing human rights through legal means. Using litigation, it tries to hold state and non-state actors r ...

(ECCHR), the Syria Justice and Accountability Centre and th
podcast 'Branch 251'
have documented the trial. The prosecution is part of a larger trend in

to investigate and hold accountable individuals who committed crimes during the Syrian civil war. On December 2, 2021, the German federal prosecutor's office called for the life sentence against Anwar Raslan, in the first trial in the world for abuses committed by the Bashar al-Assad government. On January 13, 2022, Raslan was sentenced by the state court in Koblenz to imprisonment for life "for a crime against humanity in the form of killing, torture, severe deprivation of liberty, rape and sexual coercion in unity of action with 27 counts of ''Mord'' ('severe' murder in the

German penal code ''Strafgesetzbuch'' (), abbreviated to ''StGB'', is the German penal code. History In Germany the ''Strafgesetzbuch'' goes back to the Penal Code of the German Empire passed in the year 1871 on May 15 in Reichstag which was largely identica ...

), 25 counts of dangerous bodily harm, two counts of especially serious rape, sexual coercion, 14 counts of deprivation of liberty for more than one week, two counts of hostage-taking and three counts of sexual abuse of prisoners."

Notes

References

{{Authority control 1963 births 21st-century criminals Male criminals Syrian colonels Refugees in Germany Prisoners and detainees of Germany Living people Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Germany Syrian emigrants to Germany Torture in Syria People convicted of torture People of the Syrian civil war People convicted of crimes against humanity

Early life and career

Arrest and conviction

See also

Notes

References