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Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-59949924
German Court Finds Syrian Colonel Guilty of Crimes Against Humanity
(BBC News) Jenny Hill - Anwar Raslan, 58, a high-ranking security service officer under President Bashar al-Assad, was sentenced to life in prison by a German court on Thursday for crimes against humanity. He was charged with 58 murders as well as rape and sexual assault, and the torture of at least 4,000 people held in Syria's notorious Al-Khatib prison in Damascus between 2011 and 2012. Raslan was arrested in Germany in 2019 after having successfully sought asylum there. German human rights lawyers used the principle of universal jurisdiction to bring the case to court. Fifty survivors gave evidence to the court in Koblenz.