The United States welcomes the conviction and imprisonment of a former intelligence agent of the Assad regime in Germany
The United States welcomed the decision of the German judiciary to convict and imprison a former member of the Assad regime’s intelligence services who contributed to the arrest of 30 demonstrators in the city of Douma in 2011, in the first ruling of its kind at the global level against persons linked to the crimes of the Assad regime.
“We welcome any decision for accountability for the crimes committed during the Syrian conflict,” said Stephan Dujarric, a spokesman for the Secretary-General of the United Nations, in response to a question about the ruling.
Dujarric added, “It is clear that we have no relationship whatsoever to this process,” without explaining why he mentioned that.
Yesterday, Wednesday, the German court, “Koblenz”, sentenced Iyad al-Gharib, a former member of the Assad regime’s intelligence services, to 4 and a half years in prison, for “complicity in committing crimes against humanity.”
The verdict is the first of its kind in the world against a person responsible for the crimes of torture in which the Assad regime was involved.
Yesterday, Human Rights Watch described the verdict as historic, noting that it marked the beginning of the road towards more comprehensive justice in Syria.
It is worth noting that trials against officials of the Assad regime in Germany are conducted under what is known as the principle of “universal jurisdiction”, which allows a country to prosecute perpetrators of crimes against humanity, regardless of their nationality or where their crimes were committed.
