Sweden sentences Syrian to life for war crimes

According to a statement by Sweden’s Solna District Court on Monday, May 4, the court reached its unanimous decision after hearings that lasted 54 days, during which it heard “a very large number of claimants and witnesses.”

The statement said the judges concluded that the man was guilty of acts amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity during the war in Syria.

Targeting Peaceful Protesters

According to the court statement, the convicted man committed two separate crimes in Yarmouk Camp near the capital, Damascus, both of which were part of the armed conflict in Syria.

The first crime occurred on July 13, 2012, according to the court statement, when the man took part, alongside members of the Syrian police or security services and armed militias loyal to the former regime, in opening fire on a peaceful anti-regime demonstration in Yarmouk.

The court concluded that the shooting killed and wounded several protesters and other civilians who were in the area near the demonstration.

The second crime took place between December 2012 and the end of July 2013, when the man worked at a Syrian regime checkpoint in Yarmouk. The checkpoint was run by the forces of the former Syrian regime and security services, along with armed militias loyal to the regime, according to the statement.

The court established that the regime arrested and abducted a large number of civilians at the checkpoint, where they were subjected to torture and severe suffering and, in some cases, lost their lives.

The court concluded that the convicted man participated in this process by identifying, searching, and arresting civilians at the checkpoint, with full knowledge that the arrests were carried out for that purpose.

The court panel included Hampus Lilja and Anu Rentala, along with four jurors. The conviction and sentence were issued unanimously.

Hampus Lilja said, “The district court considered these acts serious because they targeted a large number of civilians and resulted in the killing and injury of many people. For the same reason, the sentence was set at life imprisonment.”

In addition to the prison sentence, the court ordered the man to pay compensation to the relatives of the victims of the attack during the demonstration, to those who were injured in the incident, and to civilians who were arrested and tortured at the checkpoint.

Justice Track Expands

The ruling comes within an expanding international judicial track to prosecute perpetrators of crimes in Syria.

In the Netherlands, the public prosecution demanded that Syrian national Rafik Qutrib, 58, be sentenced to 30 years in prison on suspicion of committing crimes of torture, abuse, and sexual assault against Syrian civilians in the city of Salamiyah, in eastern Hama countryside (central Syria), between 2013 and 2014.

The prosecution’s demand came during a public trial session held on April 22 at The Hague District Court. Syrians who survived torture attended the session and confirmed in their testimonies that the defendant was the person who committed these atrocities against them.

According to the indictment, Qutrib faces 25 criminal charges, including complicity in torture, sexual violence, and rape as crimes against humanity, according to a report by the Dutch Public Prosecution Service.

Qutrib From Civil Servant to “Interrogator”

According to a previous Enab Baladi report, the defendant is named Rafik Qutrib and is from the city of Salamiyah. He began his work as an employee at the local court, but as peaceful protests against the government of the ousted president Bashar al-Assad escalated, he joined the “National Defense Forces,” an armed faction that fought alongside regime forces.

The case file, according to the Dutch Public Prosecution Service report, revealed that Qutrib’s role was not limited to clerical work at the court. He was promoted to become an interrogator and jailer at a militia detention center west of Salamiyah.

The prosecution said he participated in suppressing peaceful protests “brutally,” and that the militia often carried out “dirty” work for the regime, according to the prosecution’s description, such as arresting, imprisoning, and interrogating civilians.

These testimonies are consistent with testimonies obtained by Enab Baladi from inside Salamiyah.

Activist Ghazwan al-Mira, a resident of Salamiyah, recounted Qutrib’s path to Enab Baladi: “He began his work as an employee at the court, but with the start of the events in Syria, he joined the National Defense Forces to become the interrogator and jailer of the Tal Eltut center in Salamiyah countryside.”

Al-Mira added that Qutrib “was involved in killings under torture, financial extortion of detainees’ families, and was responsible for writing malicious reports that sent dozens of young men to detention centers.”

[Source: Enab Baladi English]