Syrian Doctor On Trial In Germany For Crimes Against Humanity

Frankfurt, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 19th Jan, 2022 ) :A Syrian doctor goes on trial in Germany on Wednesday accused of crimes against humanity including torture and murder while working at military hospitals.

Alaa M., 36, who arrived in Germany in 2015 and practiced medicine there until his arrest, faces 18 counts of torturing detainees in Homs and Damascus in 2011-12, including setting fire to a teenage boy's genitals.

He also allegedly administered a lethal injection to a prisoner who resisted being beaten, according to Federal prosecutors. Alaa M. denies the charges.

The trial at Frankfurt's higher regional court comes after another German court last week sentenced a former Syrian colonel to life in jail for overseeing the murder of 27 people and the torture of 4,000 others at a Damascus detention centre a decade ago.

That verdict, hailed by victims as "historic", marked the culmination of the first trial globally over state-sponsored torture in Syria.

The proceedings in Germany are made possible by the legal principle of "universal jurisdiction", which allows serious crimes to be prosecuted even if they were committed in a different country.

Other cases involving the Syrian conflict have also sprung up in France, Norway and Austria.

In 2017, Sweden became the first country to convict a former Syrian soldier of a war crime.