Der Generalbundesanwalt beim Bundesgerichtshof (GBA)
GBA: Arrest of a Suspected Member of a Syrian Regime Militia for Crimes Against Humanity
Karlsruhe (ots)
Today (30 September 2025), the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office had agents of the Federal Criminal Police Office, assisted by Berlin police, arrest
Syrian national Anwar S.
in Berlin in execution of an arrest warrant issued by the Investigating Judge at the Federal Court of Justice on 15 September 2025.
Anwar S. is strongly suspected of crimes against humanity in the form of killing, torture and deprivation of liberty (section 7 para. 1 nos. 1, 5 and 9 of the German Code of Crimes against International Law [VStGB]).
In essence, the arrest warrant sets out the following allegations:
Since no later than the end of April 2011, the Syrian regime under then-president Bashar Al Assad started using violence to oppress nationwide opposition movements. The objective was to have security forces suppress and intimidate the civilian population as early on as possible. To this end, actual or suspected members of the opposition were detained, tortured and even killed without due process all over the country.
Anwar S. was the head of a "Shabiha militia" that was deployed in Aleppo on behalf of the former Syrian regime. On eight separate occasions after Friday prayers between late April 2011 and November 2011, the suspect and his militiamen beat up civilians with batons, metal pipes and similar tools to disperse or suppress protests. Electric shocks were used as well. The militia turned over some of the assaulted protesters to police and intelligence departments which detained them for different periods of time. In detention, the victims were likewise subjected to severe abuse and humiliation. On one incident outside a mosque in Aleppo's Said Al Dawla district, the suspect's militiamen injured a protester so severely that he died shortly thereafter.
The suspect is due to be brought before the Investigating Judge at the Federal Court of Justice tomorrow (1 October 2025) who will be reading out the arrest warrant to him and decide on the enforcement of pre-trial detention.
Rückfragen bitte an:
Der Generalbundesanwalt beim Bundesgerichtshof (GBA)
Dr. Ines Peterson
Oberstaatsanwältin beim BGH
Brauerstr. 30
76135 Karlsruhe
Telefon: 0721 8191-4100
Fax: 0721 8191-8492
E-Mail: presse@generalbundesanwalt.de
http://www.generalbundesanwalt.de/
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