Dutch court convicts pro-Syrian government militia member of illegally detaining, torturing civilian
ABC News
A Dutch court has convicted a former high-ranking member of a pro-Syrian government militia of illegal detention and complicity in torture, sentencing him to 12 years in prison
THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- A Dutch court convicted Monday a former high-ranking member of a pro-Syrian government militia of illegal detention and complicity in torture, sentencing him to 12 years in prison.
The defendant, identified only as Mustafa A. in line with Dutch privacy laws, was found guilty in the 2013 arrest and inhumane treatment of a civilian while serving in the pro-Damascus Liwa al-Quds militia.
The 35-year-old was tried in The Hague District Court based on universal jurisdiction, a legal principle that allows suspects to be prosecuted for international offenses such as war crimes even if they are committed in another country.
The court called the militia a criminal organization whose members “were guilty of war crimes such as looting and violence against civilians and unlawful deprivation of liberty of civilians.”
A. was specifically convicted of illegal detention and complicity in the torture of a Palestinian man who was dragged out of his home at a refugee camp near the city of Aleppo and handed to the Syrian Air Force Intelligence Service, whose members subjected him to repeated torture, the court said.
