THE HAGUE, Netherlands (CN) — Dutch judges sentenced a former militia commander to 12 years in prison for complicity in torture and illegal detention on Monday, marking the first conviction of a pro-government Syrian defendant in the Netherlands.
The 35-year-old, identified only as Mustafa A., was not present in The Hague courtroom as judges took less than an hour to read out the verdict, finding him guilty of crimes against humanity and war crimes for violently arresting a Palestinian refugee and handing him over to Syrian forces who later tortured him.
He was convicted of belonging to a terrorist organization after joining Liwa al-Quds, which operates in the Palestinian refugee camp al Nayrab near Syria's Turkish border. The armed group worked closely with the security services of President Bashar Assad, who have been accused of engaging in a torture campaign against civilians since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war.
“The violence was widespread and carried out systematically,” Judge Jacco Snoeijer said, reading out the verdict.
Under a legal principle known as universal jurisdiction, countries can prosecute offenders of very serious crimes even if they did not occur within their territory.
In January 2013, prosecutors say Mustafa A., together with the Syrian military security service, arrested a man in his home in the refugee camp. During the arrest, the man was beaten and prosecutors later described his torture while in detention.
The same court in The Hague found another Syrian asylum-seeker, Ahmad al Khedr, guilty of committing war crimes last year for the execution of a Syrian government official in 2012, a killing that was captured on video. Dutch police arrested another former pro-Assad militia official late last year.
Germany convicted the first Syrian outside of the country for crimes relating to the conflict. A former member of the secret police was found guilty of facilitating torture in 2021. Last year, a court in the small German city of Koblenz sentenced Anwar Raslan to life in prison for torturing some 4,000 people at the infamous military intelligence facility known as “Branch 251” in the country’s capital, Damascus.
The Netherlands, together with Canada, launched a case against Syria at the International Court of Justice over the widespread use of torture. Earlier this month, judges at the U.N.’s highest court ordered Assad’s government to stop the practice. Syria boycotted the hearings.
The Court of Justice decision was the first time an international court had ruled on crimes during the country’s 12-year-long civil war. Russia has blocked attempts to establish an international tribunal to look into the conflict.
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