Image source: caesar families org
The website “Caesar Families Association” reported that families of victims affected by the Syrian regime have filed a criminal complaint in a German court against a group of officers involved in crimes against humanity.
On September 23, 2024, four families who suffered at the hands of the Syrian intelligence services submitted a criminal complaint to the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office in Karlsruhe, Germany.
The complaint relates to cases of murder, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, and torture in four different incidents. It is directed against five high-ranking officials in the Syrian regime, accusing them of committing crimes against humanity.
The complaint is supported by both the Caesar Families Association (CFA) and the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR). Through this criminal complaint, ECCHR has renewed its call for the Federal Public Prosecutor to launch comprehensive investigations against officials in the Syrian regime for crimes against humanity.
The victims were arrested by Syrian regime forces in different parts of the country and were held in intelligence-run torture prisons in 2012 and 2013. All efforts by the families to determine the whereabouts of their loved ones “failed” until the appearance of the “Caesar Photos,” which confirmed their deaths.
Who are the officers accused?
– Jamil Hassan, former head of the Syrian Air Force Intelligence Directorate.
– Ali Mamlouk, former head of Syrian Intelligence and advisor to President Bashar al-Assad.
– Abdul Fattah Qudsiyeh, former head of Military Intelligence and deputy head of the National Security Office.
– Rafiq Shehadeh, former head of Military Intelligence.
– Ghassan Joudat Ismail, former deputy head of Air Force Intelligence and its current head since 2019, succeeding Jamil Hassan.
What are the Caesar Photos?
The Caesar Photos consist of 26,938 high-resolution images, 6,821 of which depict the bodies of individuals who died in Syrian prisons. These photos were taken, despite great personal risk, by a former Syrian military photographer known by the alias “Caesar” and were smuggled out of the country. Since then, they have become crucial evidence in investigations into human rights violations committed under the Assad regime.
The photos, which document the bodies of detainees who died under torture in Syrian regime prisons, were first leaked in January 2014 and became known as the Caesar Photos. Caesar, a forensic photographer for the Syrian military police, personally photographed and helped archive thousands of such images.
The images were captured between May 2011 and August 2013 as part of a routine procedure by Syrian security forces to create photographic records of thousands who died in detention since 2011. The full collection contains 53,275 files as part of the Caesar Photo Archive.
The Caesar Photos are considered critical evidence in ongoing investigations into human rights abuses committed by the Syrian regime.
Global Justice Prosecutes Syrian Regime Officers
Several European courts have prosecuted Syrian regime officers (both in-person and in absentia) for committing crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide.
These European courts operate under the principle of “universal jurisdiction,” which allows them to hold criminals accountable for crimes committed outside their territory, particularly when they affect their citizens or involve individuals with dual nationality.
On July 31, 2024, the German court in Koblenz upheld the life sentence against former Syrian officer Anwar Raslan, marking the “first trial in the world” in Germany to hold Syrian state agents accountable for torture, war crimes, and human rights violations committed against the Syrian people.
In another case, the Criminal Court in Paris sentenced three senior Syrian regime officials, including Jamil Hassan and Ali Mamlouk, to life in prison in absentia on May 24, 2024, for complicity in crimes against humanity and war crimes. This ruling came after the deaths of two French citizens, Mazen and his son Patrick Dabbagh, who were arrested in Syria in 2013.
Same Justice Organisation continue to demand the prosecution of all individuals responsible for crimes against humanity and insist on the importance of bringing war criminals to justice through international courts, as a means to achieve peace and international stability.
