In the first trial against the Syrian President’s regime, a German court has found Eyad al-Gharib guilty of aiding and abetting crimes against humanity.
Gharib is an ex-worker of the General Intelligence Directorate and was charged with carrying out orders in one of Bashar al-Assad’s most notorious prisons in Damascus. He fled to Germany and got asylum there with Anwar Raslan, who is also on trial for direct crimes against humanity. This is being done in European courts due to the “paralysis” [guardian] in the international justice system.
Hundreds of hours of testimony was collected and it was supported by the Caesar files. These contain 50,000 images collected by a police defector that were smuggled out in 2014 and showed some of the atrocities done by the Syrian government.
Gharib’s defence claims that he and his family would have been killed if he did not follow out the orders. Gharib, who did not speak in the trial, expressed his sorrow for the victims in a letter read by his lawyers. He was sentenced to four and a half years in prison.
This case is not huge in terms of its sentencing or who it has sentenced. However, with this success, it paves the way for other cases to be brought forward to bring Bashar al-Assad’s government to account and hopefully bring justice to the victims of it.
Written by Anna Male
Artwork by Zara Masood
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