LIFE SENTENCE FOR ASSAD'S TORTURE DOCTOR WHO FLED TO GERMANY WITH REFUGEES

A Syrian doctor, identified as one of the torturers and killers of opponents of Bashar al-Assad's regime, has been sentenced to life imprisonment in Germany. The 40-year-old, Alaa Moussa, arrived in Germany in 2015 and worked as an orthopedic surgeon until his arrest in 2020, after being recognized by several refugees who were among his victims. Moussa was found guilty of torturing opponents of the Syrian president between 2011 and 2012, during the country's civil war.

The verdict, delivered after a trial in Frankfurt lasting over three and a half years, marks a significant step in the fight against impunity for crimes committed by the Syrian regime, thanks to the principle of universal jurisdiction.

The Atrocities Committed

Moussa was accused of numerous acts of torture within military hospitals and prisons in Damascus and Homs. According to the court, he killed two people and severely injured nine others. Among the most serious accusations were setting fire to an adolescent's genitals and administering a lethal injection to a prisoner who resisted beatings in his cell.

"He killed two people and severely injured nine others," stated Judge Christoph Koller, specifying that the established facts "are part of the brutal reaction of Assad's dictatorial and unjust regime" to the 2011 protests. The judge emphasized that the verdict also serves to demonstrate that "the suffering of the victims is not forgotten."

Given the "exceptional gravity of the crimes," Alaa Moussa's life sentence was combined with a mandatory minimum term, to be determined after fifteen years of imprisonment.

Testimonies and Impact of the Verdict

During the trial, which began on January 19, 2022, Moussa was heard under stringent security measures and confronted with over fifty witnesses, many of whom were former victims. Some testified with their faces covered, while others reported threats against family members remaining in Syria, with the shadow of the Syrian secret services looming over the proceedings. The situation for witnesses reportedly improved after the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024.

A former lieutenant from Aleppo, imprisoned for refusing to shoot at demonstrators in 2011, recounted seeing Moussa "inject substances into patients lying on the floor" of Mezzeh 601 military hospital, where they "died shortly after." According to Human Rights Watch, that very hospital appears in photographs of tortured bodies and abuses smuggled out of Syria by the military photographer known as Caesar.

The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), a civil party in the process, hailed the sentence as "a further step towards full recognition of the Assad regime's crimes." Lawyer Patrick Kroker argued that "sentences like this are milestones upon which a future justice process can be founded, even in Syria."

Universal Jurisdiction in Action

"Every torturer, wherever they committed their crimes, must know that they cannot be sure of escaping justice," said Judge Koller.

Germany has previously convicted other former Syrian officials, with German prosecutors utilizing universal jurisdiction laws, which allow them to prosecute individuals suspected of crimes against humanity committed anywhere in the world.

Two weeks prior, an former commander of a pro-Assad militia was also sentenced to life imprisonment for murder, torture, and kidnapping between 2012 and 2014. In 2022, the trial of Anwar Raslan, a former intelligence officer, concluded with a life sentence for the deaths of 27 detainees and the torture of at least 4,000 people at the Al-Khatib prison.

Similar trials have also taken place in France and Sweden. The Syrian conflict, which erupted in 2011 after the violent repression of peaceful protests, has resulted in over 500,000 deaths, millions displaced, and widespread devastation across the country.