Prime suspect in Syria abuse case admitted interrogations were 'carried out with violence', officer tells court

Syrian colonel Anwar Raslan accused of overseeing the murder of 58 people and the torture of 4,000

Syrian defendant Eyad Al Gharib hides himself under his hood during his trial in Germany. AFP

The main defendant in the first trial on state-sponsored torture in Syria says he sought police protection in Germany because he felt threatened by Bashar Al Assad's intelligence service after he switched sides, a German court was told on Friday.

Prime suspect Anwar Raslan, an alleged former colonel in Syrian state security, is accused in Germany of overseeing the murder of 58 people and the torture of 4,000 others while in charge of the Al Khatib detention centre in Damascus between April 2011 and September 2012.

The torture allegedly included "electric shocks", beatings with "fists, wires and whips" and "sleep deprivation".

Fellow defendant Eyad Al Gharib, 43, is accused of being an accomplice to crimes against humanity having helped to arrest protesters and deliver them to Al Khatib in the autumn of 2011.

On the second day of the hearing, a police investigator told the court that both men had fled to Germany after deserting Syrian intelligence services to join the opposition.

The court heard both men have admitted to the German authorities their past links to Assad's regime.

On Friday a German officer told the court Raslan had worked in the Syrian intelligence services for 18 years before he approached the police to tell them about his past in February 2015, five months after he arrived in Germany.

He felt "threatened by Syrian secret service agents," said the investigator, adding that Raslan said he had joined the Syrian opposition in exile after deserting the regime.

That triggered German investigators' interest on his past.

Interrogated twice by criminal police, he provided "vast and varied information" about what he did, the court heard.

He explained how within his division 251, where he was promoted to "the highest rank" in January 2011, soldiers began carrying out arbitrary arrests, the investigator said.

"He said that interrogations were carried out with violence," said the officer, detailing various torture methods practised in the prison.

The court has heard an account of the appalling horrors suffered by 24 former Al Khatib inmates, many of whom were arrested for taking part in pro-democracy demonstrations during the Arab uprising in 2011.

Like hundreds of thousands of other Syrians, the two men fled their country and applied for asylum in Germany.

Ahead of the trial, activists including Human Right Watch have said that the case "should serve as a stark warning to those who are currently committing abuses in Syria that no one is beyond the reach of justice".

Raslan was arrested in February last year along with Al Gharib, who was sitting next to him in the dock.

Al Gharib, who arrived in Germany in April 2018, had also not sought to hide his past when he filed his asylum application in May 2018 after deserting the army.

The trial is expected to be completed in August at the earliest.

If convicted, both men face up to life in prison, which in Germany usually means 15 years' jail before parole is considered.

On Thursday, Syrian lawyer Mazen Darwish, who was detained and tortured by the regime, attended the opening of the case in Koblenz, Germany.

"It was a very emotional moment when we saw the victims and the suspects in one place," Mr Darwish, the president of the Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression, told Channel 4 News. "This is exactly what we want. We're not seeking revenge, we are seeking justice in a professional and independent way."

Mr Darwish was arrested in 2012 after criticising the crackdown on protests against President Assad’s rule in 2011. He was released more than three years later after suffering from torture.

He said that respect for the defendants in a courtroom was alien to the Syrian experience of trials.

“As a lawyer in Syria, usually from the beginning you know the result even before the court starts,” he told the broadcaster.

He said he was confident that the international community would finally find a way to secure justice for those at the top of the regime including Bashar Al Assad. “I don’t think it’s a romantic theory,” he said.

“It’s also about the safe return for refugees. No-one believes that these millions of Syrians will go back in a voluntary way if there’s no justice, if we find the same people who arrested us and tortured us in positions of responsibility.”