A trial session of Colonel Anwar Raslan
January 13-2022
Colonel Anwar Raslan, who was sentenced by a German court to life in prison, was only a small tool of the Bashar Assad regime in arresting, torturing and humiliating the dignity of people and killing them in cold blood through horrific forms of torture.
Today, the former intelligence officer of the Assad regime was convicted in a court in the German city of Koblenz in a precedent, the first of its kind, for overseeing the killing of 58 people and torturing thousands of others during popular protests against the regime of Bashar Assad between 2011-2012.
This judicial conviction, which began since the arrest of Anwar Raslan in 2019, and the investigation that followed represents a damning condemnation of Bashar Assad’s regime of crimes against humanity.
The trial proceedings shed light and presented witnesses statements to the torture, rape, and violation of human freedom and dignity.
In his televised interviews with international correspondents, the head of the regime has consistently denied detention and torture. Despite the presence of four main security agencies from which many branches emerge that have detention and torture centers, and despite the regime’s long history since it has taken power in following these practices that violate the most basic human rights, how will he now react to this verdict which condemns him personally in the first place since no staff can act on his own merit or without his consent.
Since the start of the peaceful popular protests in 2011, more than a million Syrians have passed through the prisons of the Assad regime and have tasted severe torture and practices that undermine human dignity. They are still waiting the international community to advocate them from the perpetrators both commanders and executors who are led by Bashar Assad.
The Syrian Human Rights Committee:
Demands the German government to officially label Bashar Assad and his regime as criminals against humanity on the basis of this trial and the overwhelming evidence that was presented.
Demands the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to consider the regime of Bashar Assad as a perpetrator of egregious crimes against humanity.
It also demands pressure on the Assad regime to reveal the fate of detainees and those forcibly disappeared, and to release them.
Syrian Human Rights Committee