The German police allege that Anwar R., former head of the GID’s investigation department, was involved in the torture and physical abuse of detainees between April 2011 and September 2012 in Damascus. Specifically, Anwar R. headed the investigations section of “Branch 251” and later “Branch 285.” According to the Commission for International Justice and Accountability’s deputy director, Nerma Jelacic:
“These two branches are the most notorious ones. One of our witnesses has described Branch 251 as the most effective, dangerous and secretive branch, and responsible for 98 percent of the violence committed. That branch was not only receiving people into detention but also carrying out raids and searches for individuals wanted for organizing the protests against Bashar Assad’s rule.”
Meanwhile Eyad A., a member of the Assad intelligence service, is alleged to have assisted in the killing of two people and the torture and physical abuse of at least 2,000 people between July 2011 and January 2012. Both men left Syria in 2012 and applied for asylum in Germany.
According to the German court, the Paris prosecutor, as part of a joint investigation team, also arrested a former employee of Anwar R.’s intelligence department near Paris. French prosecutors have not yet released any information on that arrest.
As Emma Broches highlighted on Lawfare, this is not the first time European prosecutors have arrested or prosecuted individuals for crimes committed in Syria. In June 2018, the German Federal Court of Justice issued an arrest warrant for Jamil Hassan, head of the Assad Air Force Intelligence Directorate, for his alleged involvement in torture, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Germany recently asked Lebanon for help extraditing Hassan, who reportedly entered Lebanon for medical treatment. Similarly, in November 2018, a French judge issued arrest warrants for Hassan and two other senior Assad officials, Ali Mamlouk, director of Assad’s National Security Bureau, and Abdel Salam Mahmoud, the official in charge of the Air Force Intelligence Investigative Branch at Mezzeh military airport, for alleged involvement in torture, enforced disappearances, crimes against humanity and war crimes. For a collation of some of the national criminal proceedings stemming from war crimes committed in Syria, see here.
Torture in Syria and the General Intelligence Directorate
According to the UN-mandated Independent International Commission, eyewitness accounts and documentary evidence “strongly suggest” that the Assad regime detains tens of thousands of people at any one time, and that thousands more have disappeared “after initial arrest by Assad militias or while moving through Government-held territory, or have gone missing after abduction by armed groups.” Forms of torture include dulab (placing detainees inside a wheel before beating them), shabeh (hanging detainees from the ceiling by their wrists), beatings with objects and electrocution. The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) said that it had documented the names of 13,608 people who died between March 2011 and August 2018 from torture inside Assad regime detention centers.
Most deaths in detention have been documented as occurring in locations that the Assad intelligence services control. The GID, of which Anwar R. was a high-ranking employee, is one of four intelligence agencies that are part of the Assad security apparatus. The other agencies are the Military Intelligence Directorate, the Air Force Intelligence Directorate, and the Political Security Directorate. Main detention facilities that the GID controls include Interior Security Branch 251 and Investigations Branch 285, located west of central Damascus.
Based on more than 621 interviews and documentary material, and given the reporting procedures in place at the branches, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry says that those people who exercised effective control over the detention facilities must have known about the high number of deaths from poor prison conditions, torture or medical neglect. Thus, the commission says that there are reasonable grounds to believe that high-ranking officers and their civilian superiors—who knew of the vast number of deaths occurring at detention facilities under their effective control, and who failed to take actions to prevent the abuse, investigate allegations or prosecute those responsible—are individually criminally responsible under international law for the crimes committed in those detention centers.
Extraterritorial Jurisdiction for Germany and France
Germany’s 2002 Code of Crimes Against International Law (CCAIL) (see here for unofficial English translation) incorporates the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court into German domestic law. CCAIL Section 1 provides German courts “pure” universal jurisdiction over the crimes enumerated in the code, which include genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Germany, Sweden and Norway are the only European countries that recognize “pure” universal jurisdiction, meaning universal jurisdiction that requires no specific link to those countries in order for them to prosecute certain crimes, even if the crimes were committed outside those countries’ territories and neither the alleged perpetrator nor the victims are nationals of those countries nor present in those countries’ territories. This allows countries with “pure” universal jurisdiction to exercise jurisdiction over war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide even when there is no link between those countries and the crime. Investigations into these cases can even take place when the suspect is neither present in their territory nor a resident. Notably, Belgium and Spain once had statutes recognizing “pure” universal jurisdiction that their governments have since narrowed.
While France does not have the same sort of legislation as Germany, its ability to prosecute is drawn from its own universal jurisdiction law. Article 689 of the French Code of Criminal Procedure incorporates the Rome Statute and extends French court jurisdiction to include genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
What’s Next?
While it’s likely that trials stemming from these arrests will take place in both France and Germany, it remains to be seen what arguments the defense will raise and how the domestic courts will interpret or shape the international law surrounding foreign official immunity and prosecution for jus cogens crimes. As a matter of customary international law, foreign heads of state and certain other senior officials have traditionally been accorded immunity as a way to preserve interstate comity and the stability of international relations. This immunity, however, has proven controversial where it limits domestic claims concerning egregious violations of international human rights law.
For its part, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) upheld the immunity of certain high-ranking foreign officials as a “firmly established” rule of customary international law in its 2002 judgment in the Arrest Warrant case, though it acknowledged that this immunity did not continue after the official left office or thereafter apply to private acts even while he or she was in office.
Of the three former Assad officials who have been arrested, Anwar R. is the most senior and thus the most likely to try to claim some form of jurisdictional immunity. Prior national court decisions provide some guidance on how German courts may seek to navigate Arrest Warrant in order to defeat this claim.
In Khurts Bat, the UK High Court of Justice distinguished Arrest Warrant by virtue of the seniority of the defendant’s position, noting that “ With Syria not a party to the Rome Statute, and with Russia and China having vetoed attempts at referring the situation to the ICC, European courts like those in Germany and France seem to offer the best hope of accountability for torture and other international crimes in Syria. The arrests of Anwar R., Eyad A., and the third unnamed official may be a step in that direction. By Hayley Evans Link to the original source of Lawfare
التعليقات (0)