German police have arrested four stateless Syrian Palestinians and a Syrian citizen suspected of committing crimes against humanity and war crimes in Syria some 10 years ago, prosecutors said.
The men, identified under German privacy laws only as Jihad A., Mahmoud A., Sameer S. and Wael S., are suspected of having been affiliated with the armed Free Palestine Movement militia in Syria. Mazhar J. is suspected of having been a Syrian intelligence officer, prosecutors said in a statement on Wednesday (3).
“The individuals… are strongly suspected of killing and attempting to kill civilians (which) has been qualified as a crime against humanity and a war crime,” the statement said.
Jihad A., Mazhar J. and Sameer S. were arrested in Berlin, Mahmoud A. in Frankenthal in the southwestern state of Rhineland and Wael S. in the northeastern state of Mecklenburg Vorpommern, prosecutors said.
The individuals are suspected of participating in a violent crackdown on a peaceful anti-government protest in Al Yarmouk in July 2012, in which civilian demonstrators were targeted. Six people were killed and others were seriously injured, prosecutors said.
The alleged militia members are also accused of punching and kicking civilians between 2012 and 2014 at checkpoints and beating them with rifle butts, prosecutors said.
One individual was handed over to the Syrian Military Intelligence Service for detention and torture, they said. In addition, one of the suspects is alleged to have handed over to authorities three people killed in a mass execution of 41 civilians in April 2013.
The arrests were made under Germany’s universal jurisdiction laws, which allow courts to prosecute crimes against humanity committed anywhere in the world. Authorities have coordinated a joint investigation with Sweden.
The Swedish prosecutor’s office said in a separate statement that it had arrested three people in Sweden for crimes against international law committed in Syria in 2012.
Source: CNN Brasil
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