A Syrian doctor accused Germany German federal prosecutors said on Wednesday that he had committed crimes against humanity on suspicion of torturing and killing one of them in a military hospital in his hometown.
The Karlsruhe Federal Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement that Ala Moussa came to Germany in 2015 and practiced medicine before being arrested last year. He was accused of torturing 18 in a military hospital in a Syrian city. Holmes and DamascusThese allegations include allegations that Mousa tried to make people sterile.
The statement said that the federal indictment charged him with murder, serious bodily injury, attempted bodily injury, and dangerous bodily injury.
The prosecutor said after the opposition’s uprising against Syria began President Bashar al-Assad In 2011, protesters were frequently arrested and tortured. Wounded civilians believed to be members of the opposition were also taken to military hospitals, where they were tortured and sometimes killed.
February, one German court convicted former member of Assad’s secret police Facilitate the torture of prisoners in a landmark ruling that human rights activists say will set a precedent for other cases in the decade-long conflict.
Aiyad Garib Convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to 4 years and 1/2 year imprisonment by the Koblenz Regional Court.
This is the first time that a court outside Syria has ruled on a crime against humanity committed by a Syrian government official. German prosecutorGermany invoked the principle of universal jurisdiction for serious crimes to bring cases involving victims and defendants to Germany.
In the current case, the prosecutor accused Syrian doctors of pouring alcohol on the genitals of a teenage boy and another man at Military Hospital No. 608 in Homs and lighting them with a lighter. He was also accused of kicking and beating 9 other people in the same hospital in 2011.
The indictment also stated that Moussa kicked and beat a detained man who had a seizure. German prosecutors said that a few days later, the doctor prescribed medicine to the man, and then he died without a clear cause of death.
The indictment lists other suspected torture cases at the Holmes Military Hospital, including hanging people from the ceiling and beating them with plastic batons, and pouring flammable liquids on one of them and burning them. Moussa was also accused of kicking another patient’s open infected wound, pouring disinfectant into it and setting it alight.
In a 2012 case, Moussa allegedly severely beat and kicked a prisoner. German prosecutors said that when the man defended himself by kicking back, Moussa knocked him to the ground with the help of a nurse and killed the prisoner shortly after being injected with a toxic substance.
In addition to the allegations of torture at the Homs Military Hospital, Moussa was also accused of torturing prisoners at Mezzeh 601 Military Hospital in Damascus between the end of 2011 and March 2012.
General secretary European Constitution and Human Rights Center Praise Moussa’s prosecution. “Serious crimes against Syrian civil society do not only occur in intelligence detention centers: Syria’s system of torture and extermination is complex and can only exist with the support of various actors,” Wolfgang Kalek said in a statement Say. “With the trial [of Mousa], The role of military hospitals and medical personnel in this system can be solved for the first time. “
Kaleck also pointed out that the experiment is also important in terms of addressing the issue of sexual violence. Kalek said: “Sexual violence is being used systematically and deliberately as a weapon against the Syrian opposition,” adding that Moussa’s trial may “send an important signal to many survivors who have remained silent so far.”
