Five Syrians being detained in Germany were among a group of pro-Bashar Al Assad gunmen who opened fire on protesters during the country's civil war, war crimes prosecutors have said.
New court documents reveal in full the claims that members of a pro-Assad militia called the Free Palestine Movement, plus a military intelligence agent, killed unarmed civilians in Damascus in 2012. Their detention in Germany has been extended by three months while investigators gather more evidence.
Prosecutors also suspect four of the men of abusing civilians at checkpoints manned by the Free Palestine Movement in Syria. The fifth, Mazhar J, is suspected of handing over victims to Branch 227 of Syria's military intelligence, which later killed 41 people in a mass execution in Damascus, investigators say.
The five men moved to Germany between 2014 and 2018, but judges ruled they have put down few social or family ties that would prevent them fleeing for Syria if released pending charges. Syrian citizen Mazhar J and stateless Syrian Palestinians Jihad A, Mahmoud A, Sameer S and Wael S were arrested last year.
According to court papers, the four stateless men were armed members of the Free Palestine Movement, which as a pro-Assad militia was the subject of anti-regime protests in the Palestinian quarter of Damascus, called Yarmouk. The court heard Yarmouk became "one of the most fought-over neighbourhoods in Syria" as the militias battled for control.
Matters came to a head on July 13, 2012 as Friday prayers in the neighbourhood turned into a protest against both the Syrian regime and UN special envoy Kofi Annan. According to German prosecutors, warning shots were initially fired to scatter the crowd, before four of the suspects opened fire on demonstrators, killing at least three.
Half an hour later, it is alleged, three of the suspects opened fire with Kalashnikov machineguns at a second group of protesters who had assembled on another street in Yarmouk. One of the shooters is said to have fired so much ammunition that he repeatedly had to reload. At least three more people including a 14-year-old boy were killed.
The Free Palestine Movement was one of several Palestinian factions involved in the civil war, some of which opposed the regime. Once home to about 150,000 Palestinians, Yarmouk's population dwindled drastically as ISIS fighters took control in 2015 before Syrian forces recaptured the neighbourhood in 2018. Some of its former residents have recently returned to Yarmouk for the first time in years after Mr Al Assad was forced from power in December.
The German case relies on four witnesses, including an ambulance driver, who say they saw one or more of the suspects take part in the armed crackdown on July 13, 2012. A brother has also given evidence to detectives about Mazhar J's links to Syrian military intelligence.
Defence lawyers said one key witness had confused Sameer S with an uncle but this was rejected by the court. Further testimony has been taken from witnesses in Austria, Sweden and the Netherlands as part of the inquiry.
The court heard investigators in Berlin need more time to assess video material gathered from Syrian military intelligence, while devices seized at the homes of two of the suspects are still being examined. Beyond the violence of July 13, they believe they can tie several of the suspects to abuse of civilians lasting until 2014.
It is suspected that "victims’ heads were punched with fists and beaten with rifle butts, or they were brutalised with kicks" at checkpoints set up by the Free Palestine militia. One woman was allegedly coerced into handing over family jewellery by Mahmoud A to free her young son, while Mazhar J is said to have abused a victim with his own hands in a prison run by Syrian intelligence.
The German prosecutor's office that handles war crimes cases said it hopes to file charges by the middle of 2025. All five men face life sentences in prison if found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Many European countries claim a “universal jurisdiction” to prosecute grave crimes that occurred outside their territory. Sweden last Monday jailed a woman for 12 years for keeping prisoners captured by ISIS as "slaves" and forcibly converting them to Islam at her home in Syria.
Berlin is meanwhile making overtures to the new regime in Damascus under President Ahmed Al Shara, amid a debate over the future of the almost one million Syrian diaspora in Germany. One diplomat told The National the outreach to Syria gives Germany a chance to repair ties with the Arab world damaged by the Israel-Gaza war.
