Relatives of detainees who were killed in Syrian regime prisons filed a criminal complaint with the Federal Prosecutor in Karlsruhe, Germany, on Monday, September 23. The complaint targets a group of Syrian regime officers involved in crimes against detainees.
The Caesar Families Association stated on its website that the criminal complaint pertains to murder, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, and torture against detainees in Assad regime prisons.
The complaint is directed against high-ranking officials in the Syrian regime, accused of committing crimes against humanity, including: Jamil Hassan, the former head of the Air Force Intelligence, and Ali Mamlouk, the former head of the National Security Bureau and Bashar al-Assad’s deputy for security and military affairs.
The complaint also names Abdul Fatah Qudsiya, the former head of Military Intelligence and Deputy Head of the National Security Bureau, and Rafiq Shihada, the former head of Military Intelligence, and Ghassan Joudat Ismail, the former deputy head of Air Force Intelligence.
The complaint was filed by four families whose sons were killed under torture in regime prisons, with support from the Caesar Families Association (CFA) and the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR).
The Caesar Families Association is the first victims’ organization to join efforts to address the atrocities committed against detainees.
The four victims were arrested by Syrian regime forces at different locations in Syria and were held in torture prisons affiliated with the intelligence services in 2012 and 2013.
The Caesar Families Association mentioned that all attempts by the families to obtain information about the whereabouts of the disappeared and to take action against their arbitrary detention failed. However, the relatives of the victims were able to identify the bodies of their family members through the Caesar photos.
Yasmin al-Mashaan, a member of the Caesar Families Association and one of the plaintiffs, said that this complaint is not only for these four victims but is a step towards justice for all Syrians and a new path to expose the systematic and brutal methods of the Syrian regime.
Al-Mashaan added, “We urge the German Prosecutor to accept this case as a continuation of its legal path in uncovering the systematic crimes of the regime, as happened in the Koblenz and Frankfurt trials. We want justice for all Syrians.”
The Caesar photos consist of 26,938 high-resolution images, 6,821 of which contain photos of bodies from Syrian prisons. They were taken by a former Syrian military photographer known by the pseudonym “Caesar” and were smuggled out of Syria.
Since then, the Caesar photos have become significant evidence in investigations related to human rights violations committed under Bashar al-Assad’s rule.
In recent years, Germany has worked to prosecute Syrian officers who committed crimes against detainees. In early August, the Federal Supreme Court in Koblenz, southwestern Germany, upheld the life sentence against former Syrian regime officer Anwar Raslan.
European courts rely on the principle of universal jurisdiction over war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide, allowing them to hold criminals accountable outside their territories for crimes committed against their citizens or those with dual nationality.
France has also worked to hold Syrian regime officers accountable. A French court sentenced three regime officials to life imprisonment in absentia for complicity in war crimes after a trial described as “historic,” especially since it was the first time a Syrian official holding a position was tried.
The trial targeted three defendants: the former head of the National Security Bureau, Major General Ali Mamlouk, the former head of Air Force Intelligence, Jamil Hassan, and the former head of the investigation branch in Air Force Intelligence, Abdul Salam Mahmoud, in connection with the killing of French citizens of Syrian origin, arrested by the regime in 2013, according to the International Federation for Human Rights.