THE HAGUE, Netherlands (CN) — Judges at The Hague District Court spent Thursday looking at photos taken from Facebook of a man posing with corpses and weapons who prosecutors say committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in Syria.
The man, identified as Mustafa A., is accused of abusing civilians in a Palestinian refugee camp near the Turkish border as part of a pro-regime militia, including violently arresting one man who was later tortured by Syrian forces.
Through a translator, the 35-year-old invoked his right to remain silent during the hearing. During an earlier hearing, he called the charges “made up.”
According to prosecutors, the man joined the pro-regime militia Liwa al-Quds, which operates in the Palestinian refugee camp al Nayrab. He worked closely with the security services of Bashar al-Assad who have been accused of engaging in a widespread torture campaign against civilians since the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War.
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. The Netherlands has prosecuted multiple Syrians but Mustafa A. is the first pro-government defendant.
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 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. Attempts to establish an international tribunal to look into the conflict have been blocked by Russia.
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 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 newspaper Trouw reported in May that between 50 and 100 people who committed war crimes in Syria may be in the Netherlands. The country’s immigration service says it has refused to grant asylum to around 50 people it suspects of involvement in serious crimes during the war.
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