Facts
In the fall of 2012, Mohammad A. allegedly founded an armed combat unit in Damascus, which included up to 50 fighters. With this unit, he reportedly joined the foreign terrorist organization Ahfad al-Rasul Brigades (AR) in November 2012. The AR was a military organization with around 15’000 members aimed at overthrowing the Syrian regime. To achieve its goal, the AR repeatedly carried out explosive attacks on state facilities in Syria. As the leader of his unit, Mohammad A. is believed to have planned and commanded an attack on a Syrian security forces building in the Damascus district of Yarmouk in March 2013.
Mohammad A. reportedly joined ISIS by the end of 2013 at the latest. He was allegedly closely associated with the local leaders of ISIS and exercised command over around 200 ISIS fighters.
Asmael K. also allegedly joined ISIS as a fighter in Damascus in 2013.
At the end of 2013, Mohammad A. and the ISIS fighting unit he commanded reportedly abducted two opponents of the organization on different occasions in Damascus. The victims were held in ISIS detention centers and executed together with ten other prisoners in mid-January 2014. Asmael K. is said to have taken part in the arrest of one of the victims. He also allegedly guarded the twelve prisoners at the execution site and shot at least one person.
Procedure
Asmael K. was arrested on 20 March 2023 in Essen.
On 8 December 2023, the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office brought charges before the Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf against the Syrian national. The defendant is suspected of membership in one or more terrorist organizations abroad. He is also accused of the war crimes of hostage-taking resulting in death and of the killing of persons protected under international humanitarian law and murder.
On 30 April 2024, the trial of Asmael K. and Mohammad A. started before the Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf.
On 18 September 2025, the Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf sentenced Asmael K. to six years’ imprisonment and Mohammad A. to seven years’ imprisonment for membership in a terrorist organization abroad. The Court acquitted the two defendants of the charge of war crimes against persons through hostage-taking resulting in death or through killing and murder.