Anwar Raslan: From Torturer to Convicted War Criminal

Branch 251 — the General Intelligence Directorate's Damascus branch — was one of the first detention facilities to receive mass arrests of protesters and activists after the 2011 uprising. Anwar Raslan served as head of interrogations. According to survivor testimony collected by Human Rights Watch and later presented at his trial in Koblenz, Raslan personally supervised torture sessions or was present while detainees were beaten, electrocuted, suspended from the ceiling, and subjected to the 'tire' and 'flying carpet' torture methods. Detainees were held in cells designed for 30 that held 200. Food was reduced to near-starvation levels. According to court documents, the temperature in cells was deliberately kept extreme — both freezing and sweltering depending on season. Raslan had authority to order or stop the abuse at any time. He did not stop it.

The trial of Anwar Raslan opened in April 2020 in Koblenz, Germany, under the principle of universal jurisdiction — the legal doctrine that allows courts to try crimes against humanity regardless of where they were committed or the nationality of defendants. The prosecution was led by German federal prosecutors who had gathered testimony from Syrian survivors living as refugees in Germany. On January 13, 2022, the Koblenz Higher Regional Court convicted Raslan of crimes against humanity including murder, torture, rape, and sexual violence in 27 individual cases. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. The verdict was described by international legal scholars as the most significant accountability milestone in the Syrian conflict and a model for future prosecutions under universal jurisdiction.