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Hannah El-Hitami

Germany - Correspondent

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Hannah El-Hitami

Hannah El-Hitami has covered the Al-Khatib trial and other universal jurisdiction cases in Germany extensively for JusticeInfo.Net since April 2020. She is an Egyptian-German journalist based in Berlin who writes mostly about West Asia / North Africa, migration and international law. She worked for the magazine of Amnesty International in Germany for two years, before starting as a freelancer in 2019. Her work has been published in Der Spiegel, Süddeutsche Zeitung, ZEIT, New Lines Magazine and others.

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In Syria, under Bashar al-Assad’s regime, torture was rife in Branch 251 prison (or Al-Khatib). Today, Syrians are seeking justice for these crimes. Photo: a very cramped cell, painted entirely red and covered in Arabic inscriptions.
How to deal with alleged perpetrators who changed sides?
30 April 2026 by Hannah El-Hitami
The trial of Syrian former prison guard Fahd Al-Hamid opened in Germany on April 27. And as in several other universal jurisdiction trials, it poses the question whether those who defected and shared crucial information should face prosecution.
Justice for Syria: what are the various initiatives for justice for Syria around the world, at the national level (in Syria or elsewhere, under universal jurisdiction) or at the international level (via the ICJ and UN bodies)? Image: world map with a photo of Sednaya prison (Syria) seen from the air and a portrait of Bashar al-Assad superimposed on it. Justice for Syria: who is doing what?
8 December 2025 by Hannah El-Hitami
One year after the fall of Bashar al-Assad, on 7 December 2024, the map of transitional justice for grave violations of international law has been transformed, both in Syria and in other countries where crimes of his regime are being tried.
Starvation and war crimes in Syria: a trial in Koblenz, Germany, attempts to make the connection. Photo: Two veiled women push a wheelchair carrying a humanitarian aid package from UNRWA down a destroyed street in Damascus. Another Syrian trial in Koblenz – but different
25 November 2025 by Hannah El-Hitami
A new trial of five Syrian suspects has opened last week in Koblenz, Germany, on November 19th. It is the first to commence after the fall of Bashar al-Assad. And it is the first ever to charge starvation as a war crime.
Truth tents in Syria - Photo: in Eastern Ghouta (south-east of Damascus), a tent houses portraits of the disappeared while Syrians (often mothers accompanied by their children) speak out and seek the truth about the enforced disappearance and torture suffered by their loved ones. Truth tents: “Talking about what Syrians need right now” 
27 June 2025 by Hannah El-Hitami
In post-Assad Syria, the “truth tents” offer a space for victims’ families to discuss truth and justice. Jad al-Hamada, one of the truth tents’ initiators, speaks to Justice Info about the demand for transitional justice in Syria.
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Tadamon massacre in Syria: a trial in Germany - Photo: a street destroyed in the Tadamon neighbourhood, south of Damascus (Syria).
25 July 2024 by Hannah El-Hitami
The 2013 Tadamon massacre looms over Germany’s latest Syria trial Videos of the Tadamon massacre of 2013, after being widely circulated on social networks, are being used as evidence in Germany’s latest universal jurisdiction trial. While defendant Ahmed H., a Syrian driver and alleged militiama [...]
Universal jurisdiction in Germany and international law. Photo: Trial of Iraqi Taha Al-Jumailly in Frankfurt.
8 July 2024 by Hannah El-Hitami
Trial and error: Germany reforms its law on international crimes Through the use of universal jurisdiction, German authorities have prosecuted perpetrators of atrocity crimes in Syria, Gambia and Iraq. Now, the German parliament has passed a law to reform the Code of Crimes Against Internationa [...]
Trial of Bai Lowe in Germany for crimes committed in the Gambia (universal jurisdiction)
28 November 2023 by Hannah El-Hitami
“Someone had to sacrifice themselves” Last Friday, a week before the verdict, the court in Celle heard the closing arguments of the defense and a final statement by Gambian defendant Bai Lowe. Both insisted on Lowe’s innocence and reiterated his claim that the self-in [...]
Bai Lowe is on trial in Germany for crimes committed in the Gambia. - Photo: Lowe enters the courtroom accompanied by police officers.
23 November 2023 by Hannah El-Hitami
“Bai Lowe tried to make amends for something beyond repair” The trial for crimes against humanity of Gambian Bai Lowe in Celle, Germany, is about to end. On the 16th and 17th of November, the prosecution and joint plaintiffs gave their closing statements. As a driver for former President Y [...]
Enforced disappearances: Germany seeks its place in international law - A relative of Syrian victims demonstrates outside the Koblenz court.
25 August 2023 by Hannah El-Hitami
Enforced disappearances and the German contradiction Last June, Germany was among 83 states supporting the creation of a UN body on missing persons in Syria. And yet it does not itself have the crime of enforced disappearance in its national criminal code, and a fruitless definition [...]
Court in Berlin where Moafak D is tried for war crimes in Syria.
20 February 2023 by Hannah El-Hitami
Syrian war crime trial in Berlin: a late alibi for defense Last Thursday, 16 February, in Berlin, Germany, Palestinian Syrian militiaman Moafak D.’s defense gave their final statements and called for his acquittal. They argued their client had been injured and bedridden at the time of the [...]
Yarmouk camp in Damascus (Syria)
14 February 2023 by Hannah El-Hitami
Syria: Berlin prosecutors urge life sentence in war crimes trial In a German court, a former militiaman from Syria is accused of firing a grenade into a crowd of civilians gathered to collect food, in March 2014. The attack took place during a Bashar al-Assad regime’s months-long siege of the P [...]
In a street whose buildings are completely devastated (Yarmouk district in Damascus, Syria), a distribution of food aid is organized for many refugees
9 January 2023 by Hannah El-Hitami
Patrick Kroker: “They saw injuries nobody could have survived” In Berlin, a former militia member from Syria is accused of war crimes for firing a grenade into a group of civilians in Damascus in 2014. The trial is the third in Germany to prosecute crimes of the Bashar al-Assad regime. Lawyer [...]
Baboucar
21 October 2022 by Hannah El-Hitami
Gambian trial in Germany: I posed as a “Jungler”, defendant says On Thursday 20 October, Baboucar “Bai” Lowe has given his first statement in six month of trial in Germany. The Gambian national, an alleged member of a notorious killing squad called the “Junglers” accused of crimes against human [...]
Bai Lowe (a
2 June 2022 by Hannah El-Hitami
Gambian trial in Germany: the thin line between witness and suspect In Celle, Germany, a former member of Gambia’s notorious “Junglers” is accused of crimes against humanity. One of his former comrades, with a very similar background, was expected to come as a witness to shed light on the death sq [...]
A doctor holds a bloodstained open book in a hospital
1 February 2022 by Hannah El-Hitami,
Germany: When Syrian doctors became part of Assad’s terror In Frankfurt, Germany, a Syrian doctor is accused of crimes against humanity. He is said to have tortured 18 prisoners in Syria’s military hospitals, depriving two of their ability to reproduce, and killing one. Dr. Alaa Moussa ha [...]
2 Syrian victims and activists demonstrate with signs outside the court in Koblenz, Germany, following the trial of Anwar Raslan
20 January 2022 by Hannah El-Hitami
Anwar Raslan's conviction: "The beginning of a wider struggle" In Koblenz, Germany, the al-Khatib trial has ended with a life sentence for main defendant Anwar Raslan. The judges found the ex-intelligence officer responsible for torture and killing in Damascus security branch 251. The defence [...]
Anwar Raslan during his trial in Koblenz, Germany
10 January 2022 by Hannah El-Hitami
Defence: “Raslan did whatever he could to help” The final verdict in the first state torture trial for Syria is expected on January 13, in Koblenz, Germany. Last Thursday, the defence pleaded for Anwar Raslan’s innocence. The former secret service officer himself made a final s [...]
Syrian Colonel Anwar Raslan handcuffed during his trial in Koblenz (Germany)
6 January 2022 by Hannah El-Hitami
Prosecution: "Raslan was either powerless, or he wasn’t" Today on January 6, the defense will make its closing arguments before the court in Koblenz, Germany. The trial against former Syrian secret service colonel Anwar Raslan is coming to an end. In December, the prosecution and joint [...]
A woman and young Yezidi refugee girls
7 December 2021 by Hannah El-Hitami
Germany: First conviction for genocide against the Yazidi In the German city of Frankfurt, Iraqi national Taha al-J. has been sentenced to life in prison for the death of a young Yazidi girl he enslaved. It is the first time worldwide that a court convicts a member of the organization Is [...]
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