Facts
Ahmad H. allegedly acted as the local leader of a “Shabiha militia” incorporated into the National Defense Forces in the Damascus district of Tadamon from 2012 to 2015. On behalf of the Syrian regime, this militia violently suppressed opposition efforts in Tadamon together with the Syrian Military Intelligence’s Division 227. To this end, the militia operated checkpoints where it arbitrarily arrested people to extort money, to force them into forced labor or to torture them. In addition, the militiamen looted houses and apartments of suspected opponents of the regime on a large scale and sold the stolen goods on their own account.
The defendant allegedly participated in the mistreatment of civilians on several occasions. In one incident in 2013, he is said to have punched a man detained by the militia in the face and instructed other members of the group to brutally beat the detainee with plastic pipes over a period of hours. In the fall of 2014, Ahmad H., along with other militiamen and Syrian Military Intelligence personnel, allegedly repeatedly beat and kicked a civilian at a checkpoint, grabbed the victim by the hair and slammed his head on the sidewalk. Ahmad H. then allegedly tied up the man before he was taken away by the militia. On two occasions between December 2012 and early 2015, the defendant reportedly arrested 25 to 30 people at a checkpoint and forced them to transport sandbags to the nearby front for a day. There, the detainees worked under repeated fire and without supplies of food and water. They were also beaten by the accused and other militia members.
Procedure
On 2 August 2023, the federal criminal police, acting on an arrest warrant issued by the investigating judge of the Federal Court of Justice on 26 July 2023, arrested Ahmad H. in Bremen. The defendant is suspected of having committed crimes against humanity and war crimes, including through torture and enslavement.
On 3 August 2023, Ahmad H. was brought before the investigating judge of the Federal Court of Justice who had issued the arrest warrant for him and who ordered him to be placed in pre-trial detention.
On 21 February 2024, the German Federal Court of Justice issued a decision on the prolongation of the pre-trial detention of Ahmad H. In its decision, the Federal Court of Justice also examined whether Ahmad H. enjoyed functional immunity, which it rejected by stating that “the general functional immunity of public officials does not apply to crimes under international law, regardless of the status and rank of the perpetrator. The exclusion of this functional immunity of foreign state officials in the case of international crimes is, without a doubt, part of customary international law”.
The indictment was filed on 26 March 2024 and admitted on 10 April 2024. Ahmad H.’s alleged role in the Tadamon massacre of 16 April 2013, in which soldiers of the Syrian Military Intelligence Branch 227 executed at least 41 civilians, buried the bodies in a mass grave that had been prepared in advance and set everything on fire, was not included in the indictment as his role in the massacre remains unclear.
The trial at the Hamburg Higher Regional Court commenced on 17 May 2024 and comprised 37 trial days in 2024. Twenty-five witnesses and two expert witnesses testified. Although the Tadamon massacre was not included in the indictment, it was mentioned several times during the trial. Video evidence of other brutal killings by pro-regime armed militias also played a central role.
On 18 December 2024, Ahmad H. was convicted of 21 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including through torture, deprivation of liberty and enslavement. He was sentenced to ten years of imprisonment.