Syrian Colonel Jailed Over Torture of 4,000 in Prison Dubbed ‘Hell on Earth’

A German court has sentenced a Syrian Army colonel to life in jail after he was convicted of crimes against humanity, rape, aggravated sexual assault and murder following a landmark trial.

Anwar Raslan, a former colonel in the regime of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, originally moved to Europe after claiming asylum on a humanitarian basis. He was arrested in Germany in 2019 after being accused of overseeing the torture of at least 4,000 people between April 2011 and September 2012. The court also found he had been a co-perpetrator of 27 murders and 2 sexual assaults. 

Raslan, 58, was in charge of Branch 251, an intelligence unit that had its own notorious prison, named "al-Khabit" after the Damascus neighbourhood. 

Dozens of Syrians were rounded up by government security forces on a daily basis during the early days of the mass uprisings in Syria in 2011. The brutal crackdown on the protesters led the country into a civil war that has left more than half a million people killed and millions more displaced. 

The landmark verdict marks a highly symbolic victory for the opposition in exile - the regional court is the first in the world to level allegations of crimes against humanity against the Syrian state itself. 

German courts have already sentenced lower-ranking Syrian officers accused of involvement in the arrest and torture of protesters. 

Wassim Mukdad, a survivor of al-Khabit prison, and one of tens of witnesses and defendants that testified in front of German judges, told VICE World News that the trials in the southwestern town of Koblenz are an important step. 

It is the start of “a long journey toward justice for victims of Syrian regime prisons, and survivors of the systematic torture that thousands are still suffering from inside Syrian prisons,” he said. 

“I don’t know what is the right punishment for a person is who has been proved to have killed tens of people and tortured thousands, but I am happy to see that Syrian regime officers who tortured and killed people systematically in their prisons to stand trial, with all their rights preserved until they are proven guilty.”

Mukdad, a musician, was arrested multiple times in Syria before travelling to Turkey and crossing the Aegean sea to reach Europe. He joined in the case against Raslan as a witness and a survivor after hearing news of charges against him.

His ordeal started after he was put on a bus and taken to jail. “I was beaten with a metal baton and insulted after they took us off a bus, a ritual they called a ‘welcoming party,’” he says.

After being beaten, Mukdad says he sustained a broken rib. He went five days without being attended to by a doctor, while incarcerated in a 22 metre square person cell with 78 people and little food.

“I was interrogated three times, I was blindfolded and asked names of organisers of protests, and continuously beaten and insulted through the questionings,” Mukdad added.

Raslan has used the fact he defected from the Syrian regime after 2011 as a defence. But he has refused to speak during the trials, fearing that his victims would be able to identify him by his voice.

His defence argued that none of the witnesses was directly tortured by the accused himself.

“After five days in al-Khatib, I was taken to the general security branch, and then released without any trial. During that period of arrest, which lasted 17 days I lost 17kg through malnutrition. Some days I only had six olives for dinner,” Mukdad said.

“Today, I can say that I am proud that officers, and high ranking Syrian officials who tortured thousands of Syrians in prison until now, that they won’t be able to get away with it and move on.

“Anwar Raslan stayed for over a hundred days in a courtroom that gave him every last human right and a dignified treatment,” he added.

“And I hope this case sheds light on the systematic torture practised by the Syrian regime.”