Berlin – The Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) carried out the arrest on Tuesday in the district of Neukölln. The suspect, identified as Anwar Sultan, is accused by the Federal Prosecutor’s Office of murder, torture, arbitrary detention and other grave abuses during Syria’s early uprising.
According to the German daily WELT, prosecutors obtained a 2011 video showing Sultan inside a mosque in Aleppo during violent crackdowns on anti-government demonstrations. The footage depicts regime loyalists and security personnel, armed with sticks and metal rods, beating protesters while shouting: “Do you want freedom?”
Investigators believe Sultan was among the so-called “Shabiha” militias notorious for brutal attacks in support of Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Prosecutors allege he personally led a group that assaulted civilians with batons and electric shock devices after Friday prayers on at least eight occasions, and that he handed detainees over to Syrian intelligence services, where many were subsequently tortured.
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Sultan is expected to appear before a judge at the Federal Court of Justice on Wednesday, who will decide whether to uphold his pre-trial detention.
This case comes just months after a German court sentenced Syrian doctor Alaa Mousa to life imprisonment in Frankfurt for torturing detained opponents of the Assad regime in military hospitals in Damascus and Homs. That three-year trial, which heard testimony from around 50 witnesses and victims, was hailed as a landmark in efforts to hold perpetrators of war crimes in Syria accountable.
