“I went home and stood under the shower with my clothes on, completely broken. I did not want to cry because I did not want my family to hear”. During the second day of hearings on April 9, the Hague juge read the anonymous testimony of a victim, a woman protected under the code letter R. in the case of a Syrian man, accused of torture, sexual violence, and rape as crimes against humanity.
The now 57-year-old man trial opened on April 8. According to the prosecution, between 2013 and 2014, the accused, identified as Rafiq al Q. due to Dutch privacy regulations, is suspected by the public prosecutor of having been the head of the interrogation department of a militia called National Defence Force (NDF) in the city of Salamiyah, Centre-West Syria.
Nine victims, including two women, are civil parties in the case. They were allegedly beaten, hanged, sexually abused and subjected to electric shocks. 10 to 20 more witnesses also testified before the Dutch investigators, in several European countries.
First case for sexual violence as a crime against humanity
The Netherlands has prosecuted several Syrians for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Two persons were convicted, in 2021 and 2024. Rafiq al Q. is the highest-level alleged affiliate of the former President Bashar al-Assad regime brought to trial in the Netherlands, and it is the country’s first case for sexual violence as a crime against humanity. This is also one of the first cases in Europe to focus on what happened in Salamiyah. “It’s really a precedent setting. It also sets the tone for hopefully future cases, and it sends a very good signal towards the Syrian community, who waited since 2011, that there is no impunity for these crimes”, says Hope Rikkelman Director of The Nuhanovic Foundation, which supported victims and witnesses in the investigation.
The accused arrived in the Netherlands in 2021 and have been granted temporary asylum. In 2022, he settled down in Druten with his family. The Dutch authorities tracked him down after his arrival following a tip. In December 2023, he was arrested.
“All of them are conspiring against me”
At the start of the trial before the District Court of The Hague, the defendant entered the courtroom with his shoulders straight and the beaded face frowning. He wore glasses and a striped sweater. Around 30 journalists, lawyers and monitors filled the public.
Rafiq al Q. started by denying his involvement in the crimes and accused the nine victims in the case, the witnesses and the Dutch police of lying. “All of them are conspiring against me,” he said, speaking through an interpreter from Arabic. He said that he used to work as a court clerk in Salamiyah, and that his job was to go to murder scenes and write reports of interrogations.
“I waited 28 months for this day, and if you ask me if I want to talk, then I say yes. You’re making my wish come true”, he declared. He said he wanted to submit evidence, keeping in both hands raised above his head a bundle of papers with the Ismaili flag, a green square crossed diagonally by a red line, on the cover. The Ismaili branch of Islam is predominant in Salamiyah, and Rafiq al Q. said religion was his “whole life”. His lawyer, André Seebregts, admitted it wasn’t clear to him what the evidence was. “I don’t discuss everything with my lawyer”, the defendant replied.
The accused assured he was not loyal to the Assad regime and didn’t take part in the repression of the protests, which were met with a harsh crackdown in 2011. Presiding judge Wim Van Hattum said that since August that year the protests stopped. “I have seen al Q. while he oppressed peaceful demonstrations”, he read from an anonymous witness statement. According to other testimonies, the defendant was seen hitting people, giving orders to detain protesters and working as an informant for the government.
In the Dutch system, all witnesses testify before an investigative judge and the parties can submit questions. When the trial opens, only crucial parts of the file are discussed in Court.
The man is accused of being part of the NDF. Witnesses said that after his court shift finished at 3pm, he would work as one of the militia’s interrogators in the detention centres, where they would hold perceived opponents. They testified that he was the second in command there, said the judge. One told investigators that they saw him in a camouflage uniform, wearing a Kalashnikov and other military equipment. Another said that “Rafik is the person we were most afraid of, he had torturers at his disposal”.
Rafiq al Q. raised his voice. “This trial is for the media but also for justice. In Salamiyah nothing happened, nobody hit anybody”, he added. “This entire file is full of false accusations”, to set him up.
“All these people arranged to lie together?” asked the judge.
“These names are means in the hands of someone who is backing them up, they are being used”, replied the defendant.
Syria after the regime fell
The investigation initially relied on a couple of victims, but after the fall of the Assad regime in 2024, people did not fear for their relatives in Syria and more came forward. Some were also able to travel back to Salamiyah and go to the locations where they once were held. The judge said that one witness went to an NDF location and collected the documents he found lying on the ground.
Van Hattum showed various documents, which the defendant contested as falsified. One of them was a 2013 NDF call for Rafiq al Q. to come to a meeting. The judge said that the document had the logo of the militia and was signed by the regional commander, and that according to experts it was considered authentic. One witness also presented a USB stick with a list of all NDF members and former members. This was copied and translated. Rafiq al Q. was listed there.
There is also a letter, said the judge, written by the defendant in September 2013, “apparently on behalf of the Syrian Arab Republic’s National Detention Centre” to the airborne division. “You write: ‘I have carried out my duties in the information and interrogation department regarding the terrorist’”, read the judge, “then you say, in conclusion: ‘I must excuse myself from working on behalf of the National Defence’”.
The defendant disputed the translation, arguing that in Arabic it is not possible to say “working on behalf”, and that the meaning of the letter was that he wanted to protect himself and his family from the NDF.
Pictures found in the phone of the defendant’s wife were also shown in court. Rafiq al Q. is wearing a camouflage uniform and standing with a firearm. They were taken outdoors, in front of some rocks forming a short wall. Rafik’s name was also listed in a document containing all weapons handed out to NDF members, said the judge.
The defendant confirmed it was him but said that he had never had weapons. They belonged to other military people who would come to their house, he explained, and he took pictures with them on the day they celebrated the army.
One witness who could return to Syria filmed a video of where he was detained by the NDF near Salamiyah, said the judge. On the Courtroom monitors, an overgrown grass field fenced by a wall appeared. Small, dilapidated houses were seen close to the fence, at the centre a ruined villa with broken windows. Rubbles and rusted metal cots were still in the buildings. One had a string hanging from the ceiling, in another one a paper with the NDF symbol was seen on the floor. The witness explained which areas were used as cells or interrogation rooms and where torture took place, said the judge.
Van Hattum said the police tracked some of the defendant’s pictures in uniform to the same location where the video was shot. They matched aerial pictures with what was seen in the video, and with geolocations elements such as the constructions visible in the photos’ background. The defendant maintained that he had never been to this detention centre.
The defendant detained
Contrasting stories were also presented when it came to the reasons why the defendant left Syria. According to the accused, in February 2014 he was kidnapped and tortured for 140 days because of the information he had on the murders committed by the NDF. “Everyone who had burdensome information was a target”, commented the man. After returning to work for a period, he allegedly left the country as the NDF wanted to get rid of him.
However, according to official documents and witness statements in the case file, the defendant was rather arrested by the NDF because of the sexual violence he committed against a detainee who had connections in the government. He was then sent to Damascus for a period – a witness testified sharing the cell with him there – and was later released. According to the investigations, he returned to work but was never fully accepted back by his colleagues and fled the country.
Torture and sexual violence
On April 9, the judges read the testimonies of the victims in the case, identified with the initials of their surnames for protection. M. was brought to an NDF location, in a former carpet factory, in January 2013 under accusation of helping the opposition. “I was once interrogated by Rafik but heard his voice many times during the detention”, Van Hattum read from his testimony. During his three interrogations he was tortured. “I was hit on my toes with the barrel of a rifle”, he said to the investigators. His blindfold got loose when he was hit on the face and he saw the three NDF members and recognised Rafik. “He saw I was crying and he said I had to man up”. They pressed the barrel of a gun in his anus.
R., the woman victim, also said that on the first day of Ramadan 2013, she was taken to a villa outside of the city, despite not having participated in the protests, read the judge. “I was brought inside the cell and blindfolded”. She was then brought to the interrogation room. “I entered and heard the door opening and closing”. She said the defendant hit her on her vagina and her breasts, forced her to sexual acts and raped her. “I was young and afraid, I was crying”, read the judge from her testimony. She was liberated after some time.
At a point, her blindfold came down and R. could see a birthmark on the side of his genitals, the same found on the genitals of the defendant, said Van Hattum. “According to the police, this supports the statement of R. that you were the person that forced her to sexual acts”, he added.
Seven more days of hearings will take place from April 13 to May 26. The verdict is expected on June 9.
