A German court has sentenced a former Syrian military officer to life in prison for crimes against humanity. Its the worlds first trial concerning state torture in Syria.

The court found Anwar Raslan guilty of overseeing the murder of 27 people at the Al-Khatib detention center in Damascus. Raslan headed a notorious secret service unit a decade ago under the regime of Bashar al-Assad. The ex-colonel then fled to Germany where he was detained in 2019.
Germany is able to prosecute crimes that took place in Syria due to the legal principle known as “universal jurisdiction”.
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00:00 German court finds former Syrian colonel guilty
00:43 DW’s Luisa von Richthofen at German court
03:27 The significance of prosecuting state-sponsored torture


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