 |
| Their stories are horrifying. The court has heard how detainees were beaten and doused in cold water. Others were raped or hung from the ceiling for hours on end. Torturers tore out their fingernails and administered electric shocks. At the start of the trial, pictures of state torture victims in Syria were put on display outside the court. (Photo by=Getty Images) |
[Asia News = Reporter Reakkana] It's hard to imagine what the men and women incarcerated in Syria's notorious Al-Khatib prison had to endure. BBC said that now a court in Germany will give its verdict in the case of a man accused of presiding over systematic mass torture and killing of those detained there.
Anwar Raslan, 58, is charged with crimes against humanity in the Damascus jail known as "Hell on Earth". The trial in Koblenz is the world's first criminal case brought over state-led torture in Syria. At the heart of it’s a man alleged to have been a high-ranking security service officer under President Bashar al-Assad as mass anti-government protests were violently crushed in 2011. Many protesters and others suspected of opposing the regime were rounded up and detained in the Al-Khatib facility in Damascus where, prosecutors say, Mr. Raslan directed operations.
Charging him with 58 murders including rape and sexual assault, they accuse him of the torture of at least 4,000 people held there between 2011 and 2012. Meanwhile, Anwar Raslan was arrested in Germany in 2019 having successfully sought asylum here. He denies all the charges against him, says he had nothing to do with the mistreatment of prisoners, and says he actually tried to help some detainees.
