On Monday, the families of victims who died in Syrian regime prisons submitted a criminal lawsuit to the Federal Prosecutor in Karlsruhe, Germany. It targets a group of Syrian regime officers implicated in crimes against detainees.
The Caesar Families Association announced on its website that the lawsuit addresses serious charges, including murder, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, and torture within Assad’s prisons.
Named in the lawsuit are high-ranking officials from the Syrian regime, including Jamil al-Hassan, the former head of the Air Force Intelligence Directorate, and Ali Mamlouk, the former director of the National Security Bureau and Assad’s deputy for security and military affairs.
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Additional figures cited in the lawsuit include Abdel Fattah Qudsiya, former head of the Military Intelligence Directorate; Rafik Shehadeh, former head of Military Intelligence; and Ghassan Jawdat Ismail, former deputy head of the Air Force Intelligence Directorate.
The lawsuit was filed by four families whose sons were killed under torture in regime prisons and is supported by the Caesar Families Association (CFA) and the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights. The CFA is the first victims’ organization to actively address atrocities lawsuit against detainees.
The four victims were arrested by Syrian regime forces in various locations across Syria and detained in intelligence torture facilities in 2012 and 2013. According to the CFA, all attempts by families to obtain information about their loved ones’ fates have been unsuccessful, but they were able to identify the bodies of their family members through the “Caesar photos.”
Yasmine al-Mashaan, a member of the CFA and one of the lawsuits, emphasized that this legal action is not solely for the four victims but also represents a broader pursuit of justice for all Syrians. “We urge the German prosecutor to accept this case as part of its ongoing efforts to expose the regime’s systematic crimes, as seen in the Koblenz and Frankfurt trials. We want justice for all Syrians,” Yasmine stated.
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
