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Anwar Raslan

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Anwar Raslan (Arabic: أنور رسلان),[1] born 3 February 1963[2]) is a former Syrian colonel who led a unit of Syria's General Intelligence Directorate.[3] In 2020, he was charged with crimes against humanity in a German Higher Regional Court under universal jurisdiction.[3] The specific charges against him are 4,000 counts of torture, 58 counts of murder, and rape and sexual coercion.[4] His case is the first internationally against a member of the Syrian regime under Bashar al-Assad.[5]

Life

Anwar Raslan was born in 1963 in Taldou in the Homs governorate. After completing a degree in law, he worked as a military officer in Damascus. In 2006, Raslan was responsible for the detention of Syrian lawyer and human rights defender Anwar al-Bunni. In 2008, he became colonel, and head of the intelligence department of branch 251, also known as branch al-Khatib, part of the General Intelligence Directorate. Raslan was tasked with the internal safety of a Damascus prison. In July 2012, Raslan moved to branch 285 of the state security forces. Branch 285 mostly dealt with prisoners deemed important, such as political detainees.[6]

According to the German journalist Christoph Reuter [de], who interviewed Raslan in Jordan, Raslan defected out of shame for his employer: he had wanted to investigate an attack in Damascus of January 2012, which the government refused since the attack had been staged by the Syrian secret service.[7]

Arrest

Raslan defected from the Assad regime and he and his family were smuggled to Jordan in December 2012.[8] He came to Germany in 2014 and was granted asylum in the same year.[9] He was arrested in Germany in February 2019[10] and charged in March 2020; the trial began in April 2020 and is taking place in the city of Koblenz[4] where it may last over a year.[5] Due to the lack of official recording by the German Court, a number of organizations are documenting the trial of Anwar Raslan in order to ensure the Syrian people can access information and updates about the case.[11] This prosecution is part of a larger trend in universal Jurisdiction to investigate and hold accountable individuals who committed crimes during the Syrian Civil War.

References

  1. ^ "من مخابرات الأسد إلى المنفى.. مسار سوريّين يحاكمان في ألمانيا | DW | 25.04.2020". Deutsche Welle (www.dw.com) (in Arabic). Retrieved 2021-01-03.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  2. ^ "Inside the Anwar Raslan trial: the first four days". Syria Justice & Accountability Centre. 2020-05-07. Retrieved 2021-01-05.
  3. ^ a b "High-profile Syrian war crimes trial begins in Germany. Intelligence official charged with overseeing 4,000 counts of torture and 58 murders". Financial Times. Retrieved 2021-01-03.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  4. ^ a b "Anklage gegen zwei mutmaßliche Mitarbeiter des syrischen Geheimdienstes wegen der Begehung von Verbrechen gegen die Menschlichkeit u.a. zugelassen". rlp.de (in German). Retrieved 2021-01-03.
  5. ^ a b "Laws to catch human-rights abusers are growing teeth". The Economist. 2021-01-02. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 2021-01-03. Mr Raslan was arrested in 2019. His trial began in Koblenz in April 2020 and may last for more than a year. (...) The Koblenz case is the first where a member of the Syrian regime, albeit of middle rank, is facing justice in court.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  6. ^ "À la recherche d'Anwar Raslan, tortionnaire syrien". Les Jours (in French). 2020-04-08. Retrieved 2020-07-18.
  7. ^ "Le colonel Raslan, déserteur mais faux repenti". Les Jours (in French). 2020-04-18. Retrieved 2020-10-17.
  8. ^ SPIEGEL, Fidelius Schmid, Christoph Reuter, DER. "Koblenz: Prozess gegen Anwar Raslan aus Syrien - DER SPIEGEL - Politik". www.spiegel.de (in German). Retrieved 2021-01-03.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  9. ^ NDR. "Asyl für syrischen Folterchef?". daserste.ndr.de (in German). Retrieved 2021-01-03.
  10. ^ "Germany charges two Syrians with crimes against humanity". the Guardian. 2019-10-29. Retrieved 2021-01-03.
  11. ^ "A Drop in the Ocean: A Preliminary Assessment of the Koblenz Trial on Syrian Torture". Just Security. 2021-04-22. Retrieved 2021-07-12.
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