A court in Germany has found a former Syrian regime official guilty of being an accomplice to crimes against humanity, in a historic first victory for efforts worldwide to bring legal accountability for atrocities committed in Syria’s long war.
Eyad al-Gharib, a 44-year-old former colonel in the Syrian intelligence service, carried out orders in one of Bashar al-Assad’s notorious prisons.
A survivor of torture in a Syrian state detention centre welcomed the guilty verdict. Wassim Mukdad said the conviction was an important first step but that much work remained to bring about justice for the victims of the regime