Syrian government and opposition keep silent on German sentence of colonel Raslan
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Both the Syrian government and the Turkish-backed Syrian opposition have not commented yet on the German court verdict of Anwar Raslan, an ex-colonel in the Syrian intelligence.
Anwar Raslan, a former senior official of the Syrian government who headed the Interrogation Branch Damascus detention center known as al-Khatib Branch 251, was found guilty of the murder of 58 detainees, raping others and torturing about 4,000 prisoners.
The court depended on several evidences the most of which were images from “Caesar” smuggled documents and testimonies of those who suffered from “dehumanized” detention centers.
The Commission for International Justice and Accountability (CIJA), welcomed the German court verdict describing it as a “landmark judgment”, saying it was “a critically important measure of justice for the survivors and victims of the Syrian regime.”
On January 13, the Higher Regional Court in Koblenz, Germany sentenced Anwar Raslan, a former colonel in the Syrian government, to life imprisonment on co-perpetration of crimes against humanity in the form of torture, murder in 27 cases, assaults in 25 cases, and several counts of rape and sexual assault.
Raslan was born on February 3, 1963, in Taldo town in Homs governorate, central Syria. He was graduated from the Faculty of Law, worked as a colonel for decades in Damascus, then in 1995 he was an officer of the intelligence.
In August, 2008 he became the head of Interrogation Branch which was in charge of the internal security and one of the prisons in Damascus.
In December 2012, Raslan defected the Syrian government and headed to Jordan where he became the spokesperson for the opposition and then in summer 2014, he reached Germany with his family.
He participated in Geneva talks with the opposition delegation as a military consultant in February 2014. The German authorities arrested him in February, 2018 so that his trial started.