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A former member of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s secret police was convicted yesterday by a German court of facilitating the torture of prisoners in a landmark ruling that human rights activists hope will set a precedent for other cases.

The Trump administration accused Syria’s government on Monday of hanging hundreds of political opponents and other prisoners and burning their bodies at a military prison near Damascus, part of what the State Department called an egregious pattern of atrocities by Syrian President Bashar Assad. Gharib, 44, was sentenced by the Higher Regional Court in the German city of Koblenz to 4½ years in prison. His trial, along with Raslan’s, began in April 2020, with both of them prosecuted under the principle of universal jurisdiction for serious crimes no matter where they allegedly occurred. W...

Presiding judge Anne Kerber (L) stands before handing the verdict to Syrian defendant Eyad al-Gharib (R, hidden under a folder), accused of crimes against humanity in the first trial of its kind to emerge from the Syrian conflict, waits to hear the verdict in the court room on February 24. — AFP KOBLENZ: A German court on Wednesday convicted a former Syrian intelligence service agent for complicity in crimes against humanity, in the first court case worldwide over state-sponsored torture by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government. Eyad al-Gharib, 44, was sentenced to four and a half...

Conviction of former Syrian secret police officer brings solace — but sparks a debate Nabih Bulos © Provided by The LA Times Syrian defendant Eyad Gharib hides his face in a courtroom in Koblenz, Germany, on Wednesday. (Thomas Lohnes / Pool photo) In the winter of 2014, Anwar Bunni, a top human rights lawyer who escaped to Germany from his native Syria, was in a refugee camp near Berlin when he saw a familiar face. “I couldn’t remember him exactly. He saw me, and turned away,” Bunni said. It was only days later that Bunni placed him: It was Anwar Raslan, a colonel i...