Human Rights Organization calls for war crime suspect’s prosecution in Germany
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – A former militant of a Turkish-backed faction, who committed human rights violations against residents of Afrin, northern Syria, has submitted for residency in Germany, the Human Rights Organization-Afrin revealed in a statement.
Bashar Abu Saleh, a former member in the Turkish-backed armed faction of Sham Legion, has recently submitted his asylum papers to German authorities after arriving there from Turkey, the organization announced two days ago.
For over two years, Abu Saleh, who hails from the village of Kafr Kalbin, in Azaz city, in Aleppo northern countryside, was involved in committing serious war crimes against Kurdish villagers in Afrin, according to Human Rights Organization-Afrin.
He tortured and kidnapped local civilians in turn for ransom and seized locals’ homes and properties, imposed royalties, cut down thousands of fruitful and forest trees owned by displaced Kurds, the organization reported.
The Human Rights Organization appealed to Kurdish human rights organizations and civil society activists in Germany in order to fill lawsuits against Bashar Abu Saleh with the German authorities to prosecute this war criminal.
It is worth mentioning that German courts have prosecuted Syrian refugees, either former government officers or militants of Turkish-backed factions, over committing war crimes in Syrians.
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.
On January 6, the Higher Regional Court in Hamburg in Germany began the trial of a Syrian individual on charges of belonging to a Turkish-backed Ahrar al-Sham in Syria.
In October 2021, the Federal Court in Germany approved the prison sentences ordered against a number of Syrian refugees for committing war crimes in Syria, among them was a former fighter in al-Nusra Front (now Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, HTS).