The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights

SOHR statement on Eyad al-Gharib trial | “Congratulations to all victims and martyrs’ relatives…we hope that everyone aided and involved in the killing of Syrian people will be brought to justice”

Wednesday, February 24, 2021, will remain a remarkable day for the Syrian people, as it has witnessed the first international conviction of regime agents who involved in killing and torturing detainees in the prisons of Bashar Al-Assad’s regime. The Regional Supreme Court in the German city of Koblenz has sentenced Eyad al-Gharib to four years and six months in prison, after being arrested and tried for a year for complicity in crimes against detainees in regime prisons since the start of the “Syrian Revolution”.

 

We, at the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, would like to point out that this sentence is a strong message to everyone practices violations against the Syrian people and commits war crimes and crimes against humanity. Such development fosters the hope of victims and their relatives that right will prevail. Today’s sentence against Eyad al-Gharib will largely affect all criminals, both Al-Assad’s agents who sought refuge in Europe and those affiliates of extremist groups.

 

We also call upon all Syrian refugees in Europe, who have documents convicting figures who torture Syrian people, to present these documents to courts.

 

Today, we are happy about this sentence and hope that there will be international trials against all criminals, perpetrators and all those who aided and abetted heinous crimes against the Syrian people, first and foremost, the regime president Bashar Al-Assad.

 

It is worth noting that the former Syrian intelligence service agent Eyad al-Gharib, who is aged nearly 43 and from Mohassan city in Deir Ezzor, was convicted by German court of being an accomplice to crimes against humanity while helping to arrest protesters and deliver them to “Al-Khateeb Branch”, a detention centre, in Damascus between September and October 2011. During the trial, al-Gharib persist in that he and his family could have been killed if he had not carried out the orders of the regime.

 

On the other hand the trial of the major defendant of the same case, Anwar Raslan a former officer of regime intelligence service is expected to last for more months, after Raslan case was separated from al-Gharib’s one. It is worth noting that Raslan sought refuge in Germany in 2014 and arrested in 2019. Raslan is accused by the German judicial authorities of overseeing the murder of 58 people and the torture of 4,000 others between April 2011 and September 2012 in “Al-Khateeb Branch” which is also known as the “251st Branch” in Damascus.