The Völkerstrafgesetzbuch, abbreviated VStGB, is a German law that regulates crimes against (public) international law. It allows cases to be brought against suspects under international criminal law provisions, meaning that suspects can be prosecuted even though both they and their victims are foreigners and the crime itself took place abroad.
The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) is a Syrian state-controlled news agency, linked to the country's ministry of information. It was established in June 1965.
The General Intelligence Directorate, also known as the General Security Directorate or Syrian GID, was the most important civil intelligence service of former Ba'athist Syria and played an important role of suppressing the people of Syria for the governments interests. The General Intelligence Directorate conducted an oppressive surveillance of the Syrian population, directed foreign intelligence and monitored activities in Lebanon on behalf of Hezbollah until its dissolution in December 2024.
The Air Force Intelligence Directorate was the intelligence service of Ba'athist Syria from 1963 until 2024, owing its importance to Hafez al-Assad's role as the Air Force commander. Despite its name, it was mainly involved with issues other than air force intelligence, and took an active part in the suppression of the Muslim Brotherhood rebellion in the 1980s. Agents of this service have frequently been stationed in Syrian embassies or branch offices of the national airline.
The Military Intelligence Directorate was the military intelligence service of Ba'athist Syria until 2024. Although its roots go back to the French mandate period, its current organization was established in 1969. Its predecessor organisation was called the Deuxième Bureau. It was headquartered at the Defense Ministry building in Damascus. The military intelligence service, or the Mukhabarat in Arabic, was very influential in Syrian politics.
Anwar al-Bunni is a Syrian human rights lawyer who has defended clients such as Riad al-Turk, Riad Seif, the owner of The Lamplighter,, Kurdish protesters, and "dozens of others."
The Syrian civil war is an ongoing multi-sided conflict in Syria involving various state-sponsored and non-state actors. In March 2011, popular discontent with the rule of Bashar al-Assad triggered large-scale protests and pro-democracy rallies across Syria, as part of the wider Arab Spring protests in the region. After months of crackdown by the government's security apparatus, various armed rebel groups such as the Free Syrian Army began forming across the country, marking the beginning of the Syrian insurgency. By mid-2012, the insurgency had escalated into a full-blown civil war.
Hamza Ali Al-Khateeb was a 13-year-old Syrian boy who died while in the custody of the Syrian government in Daraa. On April 29, 2011, he was detained during a protest. On May 25, 2011, his lifeless body was delivered to his family, having been badly bruised and mutilated. Hamza's family distributed photos and video of the body to journalists and activists. Shocked by what was depicted, thousands of people showed their support for Hamza online and in street protests. The incident galvanised the nascent Syrian revolution.
War crimes in the Syrian civil war have been numerous and serious. A United Nations report published in August 2014 stated that "the conduct of the warring parties in the Syrian Arab Republic has caused civilians immeasurable suffering". Another UN report released in 2015 stated that the war has been "characterized by a complete lack of adherence to the norms of international law" and that "civilians have borne the brunt of the suffering inflicted by the warring parties". Various countries have prosecuted several war criminals for a limited number of atrocities committed during the Syrian civil war.
Jamil Hassan was the head of the Syrian Air Force Intelligence Directorate and a former close adviser to President Bashar al-Assad.
The 2014 Syrian detainee report, also known as the Caesar Report, formally titled A Report into the credibility of certain evidence with regard to Torture and Execution of Persons Incarcerated by the current Syrian regime, is a report that claims to detail "the systematic killing of more than 11,000 detainees by the Syrian government in one region during the Syrian Civil War over a two and half year period from March 2011 to August 2013". It was released on 21 January 2014, a day before talks were due to begin at the Geneva II Conference on Syria, and was commissioned by the government of Qatar. Qatar has been a key funder of the rebels in Syria. The Syrian government questioned the report due to its ties to hostile sides against the Syrian government and pointed to how many of the photos were identified as casualties among international terrorists fighting the Syrian government or Syrian army troops or civilians massacred by them due to supporting the Syrian government.
International and national courts outside Syria have begun the prosecution of Syrian civil war criminals. War crimes perpetrated by the Syrian government or rebel groups include extermination, murder, rape or other forms of sexual violence, torture and imprisonment. "[A]ccountability for serious violations of international humanitarian law and human rights is central to achieving and maintaining durable peace in Syria", stated UN Under-Secretary-General Rosemary DiCarlo.
Omar Alshogre is a Syrian refugee, a public speaker and a human rights activist. He is currently the Director for Detainee Affairs at the Syrian Emergency Task Force. He is known for his efforts to raise awareness of human rights abuses in Syria and his personal experience of torture and starvation by the Syrian government during his three years of detention.
Anwar Raslan is a Syrian former colonel who led a unit within Syria's General Intelligence Directorate. In January 2022, a German Higher Regional Court convicted him of crimes against humanity under universal jurisdiction. The specific charges against him were 4,000 counts of torture, 58 counts of murder, rape, and sexual coercion. His trial marked the first international war crimes case against a member of the Syrian government during the presidency of Bashar al-Assad.
Wafa Mustafa is a Syrian journalist and activist who campaigns for the release of Syrian detainees. As an activist and former member of Families for Freedom, Mustafa has extensively lobbied the United Nations Security Council to call for the release of the names and locations of all those that Syrian authorities have in captivity. She calls for all detainees in Syria to be freed, whether they are held by the Assad regime or by opposition groups, though she also supports the public demonstrations that began in 2011 against the government of Bashar al-Assad.
The Syria Justice and Accountability Centre (SJAC) is a non-profit justice and legal documentation organization that monitors and reports on violations by various actors in the Syrian Conflict. Its documentation includes data on the Syrian government, opposition forces, ISIS, and foreign actors. The organization was started by the group Friends of the Syrian People in 2012, who had a stated goal of preserving documentation and creating a centralized source for data collection. SJAC primarily works on issues related to transitional justice, criminal accountability, and human rights violations in Syria.
Mazen al-Hamada was a Syrian activist from Deir ez-Zor. Hamada was imprisoned and tortured for more than a year and a half for participating in anti-government protests in the context of the Arab Spring in 2011. After being exiled from Syria, he became an asylum seeker in the Netherlands where he publicly testified to the abuse he suffered. In 2020, Hamada became the victim of enforced disappearance, when he was arrested by Syrian intelligence at the airport upon his return to Syria. His body was found in Sednaya Prison on 8 December 2024 during the fall of the Assad regime.
Germany–Syria relations are the bilateral relations between Germany and Syria. Germany closed its Damascus embassy and stopped its recognition of Bashar Al-Assad in 2012 because of the Syrian civil war, but did not cut relations with the former Ba'athist regime until its official collapse in late 2024.
Syrian General Intelligence Directorate (GID) Branch 251, also known as internal branch or Al-Khatib branch, is the unit of the Syrian General Intelligence Directorate concerned with internal security. It has been responsible for security in the Damascus region. Branch 251 operates Al-Khatib prison, a detention and torture center located in the Muhajreen neighborhood in central Damascus.
Human rights in Ba'athist Syria were effectively non-existent. The government's human rights record was considered one of the worst in the world. As a result, Ba'athist Syria was globally condemned by prominent international organizations, including the United Nations, Human rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the European Union. Civil liberties, political rights, freedom of speech and assembly were severely restricted under the Ba'athist government of Bashar al-Assad, which was regarded as "one of the world's most repressive regimes". The 50th edition of Freedom in the World, the annual report published by Freedom House since 1973, designates Syria as "Worst of the Worst" among the "Not Free" countries. The report lists Syria as one of the two countries to get the lowest possible score (1/100).
