Syria torture trial in Germany

On Monday, 18 May 2020, Anwar R, the main defendant in the al-Khatib trial on Syrian state torture at the Higher Regional Court in Koblenz, Germany, is expected to give a statement.

Please find below a statement by Wolfgang Kaleck, general secretary of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights. ECCHR supports 17 Syrian women and men in the al-Khatib proceedings, seven of whom are joint plaintiffs and represented by ECCHR partner lawyers.

“Whoever commits, orders or approves acts of torture should be prosecuted. This is set out in the German Criminal Code and the UN Convention against Torture.

Torture in branch 251, also known as al-Khatib, of Syria’s General Intelligence Service in Damascus was and continues to be part of the system that keeps Bashar al-Assad in power. The Assad government has used widespread and systematic torture – not only since the peaceful protests in 2011, but for decades.

As head of al-Khatib investigations, General Anwar R is alleged to be part of this system of persecution, oppression and extermination. He was central to the system, and fulfilled his function and purpose. According to the German federal public prosecutor, Anwar R did not only receive orders, but issued them to his subordinates. At the time, he would have felt safe from prosecution, as absolute immunity persists in Syria. The government is not interested in prosecuting these cases of torture, let alone bring those responsible before a court.

All too often, powerful actors avoid criminal prosecution. Time and again, low and mid-ranking perpetrators deny their responsibility, claim they were merely cogs in the machine, or show that they turned their backs on the torture system at some point.

What responsibility does someone like Anwar R bear for the state torture apparatus? Did he only obey orders? Or did he make his own decisions about if, when, and how detainees were tortured?

These questions about individual guilt in a brutal system like Syria’s is nothing new. Lawyers have been dealing with it since the Nuremberg trials. But it is clear, at least since then, that acting on others’ orders does not justify committing crimes. 

Without individuals, the powerful, unjust state apparatus crumbles. In order to legally assess Anwar R’s guilt, the court will have to shed light on the Assad government’s system of torture. And this is what makes the trial in Koblenz so significant.”

To counter injustice with legal interventions – this is the aim and daily work of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights.

ECCHR is an independent, non-profit legal and educational organization dedicated to enforcing civil and human rights worldwide. It was founded in 2007 by Wolfgang Kaleck and other international human rights lawyers to protect and enforce the rights guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as other human rights declarations and national constitutions, through legal means.

Together with those affected and partners worldwide, ECCHR uses legal means to end impunity for those responsible for torture, war crimes, sexual and gender-based violence, corporate exploitation and fortressed borders.

Maria Bause
T: +49 30 69819797
M: presse@ecchr.eu

Philipp Jedamzik
T: +49 30 29680591
M: presse@ecchr.eu