Berlin (CNN) - A German court has convicted a former Syrian regime officer for crimes against humanity, in a first-ever trial of people linked to the government in Damascus.
Former intelligence officer Eyad al-Gharib, 44, was sentenced to four-and-a-half-years in prison by a court in the German city of Koblenz for aiding crimes against humanity.
Gharib was convicted of accompanying the transportation of 30 detained demonstrators, despite knowing about the systematic torture in the prison the detainees were being sent to, according to the prosecutors. The protesters were allegedly beaten on the way to prison.
The former junior regime officer was arrested in Berlin alongside former senior regime officer Col. Anwar Raslan in February 2019 under the principle of universal jurisdiction, which gives a national court jurisdiction over grave crimes against international law, even when they were not committed on the country's territory.
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The Commission for International Justice and Accountability (CIJA), investigators who provided documentary evidence used by the prosecution, called Tuesday's verdict "historic."
"This is a historic verdict," CIJA Director Nerma Jelacic told CNN. "Not only because it is the first to convict a Syrian regime official for crimes against humanity, but also because it recognizes his crimes were part of a widespread and systematic attack orchestrated by the highest bodies of Assad's regime.
"This is only the first of many other trials and investigations we are supporting," Jelacic added. "It is almost 10 years since the crimes Eyad A. [al-Gharib] was convicted for were committed in those early days of the uprising as the regime cracked down on bare-armed protesters."
Since 2012, CIJA has collected evidence of the Syrian government's alleged crimes from investigators known as "document hunters." These are Syrians recruited and trained by former war crimes investigators and lawyers to smuggle thousands of government documents out of Syrian war zones. '
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In world first, Germany convicts Syrian regime officer of crimes against humanity, February 24, 2021
Context'..when Assad's war crimes will hopefully be tried before an international court.''..the priority now should be to end the war. Many Syrians have concluded that almost any peace, even an imperfect or ugly peace, is better than ongoing violence.' - Jimmy Carter'..a lasting ceasefire .. to rewrite the Syrian constitution..''..to achieve peace between [Israel & Syria] - '..all political parties in [Syria] to achieve a peaceful solution..'