Tortured Syrians Seek Justice in German Courts
Seven Syrians who say they were tortured under President Bashar al-Assad's regime have filed a criminal complaint against high-level military intelligence officials in a German court, describing how prisoners were suspended by their wrists for hours, subjected to electric shocks and raped.
The German Code Against International Crimes allows courts there to prosecute crimes against humanity and war crimes regardless of where the incidents occurred or the victims' nationality, according to the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, which brought the case.
The complaint filed Wednesday details what the center calls "inhuman conditions inside the prisons of the Military Intelligence Service as well as the systematic practice of torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment."
One survivor alleges that he was beaten with a hard plastic tube for several hours and saw interrogators stab others with pencils. Another said cleaning chemicals were poured on his body, burning his skin. A 57-year-old lawyer who wrote articles critical of the Syrian government said he was given electric shocks during a two-week detention in 2015.
Most of the victims and witnesses now live in Germany.