Full story
Vienna Torture Conviction
An Austrian court in Vienna on Monday convicted former Syrian intelligence officer Khaled al-Halabi, a 63-year-old former brigadier general in Syria’s intelligence services, sentencing him to eight years in prison for torture and other offences tied to abuse of opponents of Bashar al-Assad.
The court found that al-Halabi was head of the General Intelligence Directorate in Raqqa, Syria from 2011 to 2013, when the Free Syrian Army seized control of the city, and it ruled that he knew of and was responsible for the mistreatment of prisoners in his custody.
A second defendant, former police lieutenant colonel Musab Abu Rukbah, 54, whom the prosecution said was nicknamed “the Angel of Death,” was also given an eight-year sentence.
The trial included testimony from more than a dozen victims who said they were beaten, electrocuted or doused in hot and cold water, and the court said the prosecution described violence “systematically” with “standardised torture methods.”
Judge’s Warning and Denials
In Vienna, the presiding judge told al-Halabi, “Of course you were actively aware,” referring to beatings of new arrivals immediately after their arrest that the prosecution said took place in the building’s courtyard.
Al-Halabi denied any knowledge of violence against people held in his agency’s building and denied seeing the “flying carpet,” a wooden board that victims would be fastened to with a hinge at waist level.
A man who testified in court said, “I’m still afraid to this day,” recounting how al-Halabi interrogated him and the soles of his feet were beaten with electric cables.
The court ruled that al-Halabi was found guilty of torture, serious bodily harm, aggravated coercion and sexual assault, while Abu Rukbah was not charged with torture but was found guilty of other charges also faced by al-Halabi.
Universal Jurisdiction Stakes
The case was described as one of the few in which a European country has asserted jurisdiction over alleged crimes committed by Syrian state agents, with prosecutors in Vienna saying the trial was based on universal jurisdiction.
“Austrian court sentences Syrian torturers to 8 years in jail A Syrian ex-general and a former police officer were handed eight-year jail sentences by a Viennese court on Monday for torturing opponents of ousted leader Bashar al-Assad”
DW said the verdict can be appealed and described the prosecution’s approach as investigating and prosecuting certain particular serious crimes “regardless of where they were perpetrated or of the nationalities of the perpetrators or victims.”
Al-Monitor said the abuses took place in the city of Raqa between April 2011 and March 2013, and it quoted the court finding the pair’s abuses were committed as part of “systematic torture organised by the state.”
The trial also sits inside a broader European legal landscape, with Al Jazeera noting it is one of the few cases in which a European country has asserted jurisdiction and adding that Syrian officials have faced trials in France, Germany, Sweden and Belgium for alleged crimes committed during the country’s civil war.
