\n A Vienna court on Monday acquitted four ex-officials of allegedly granting asylum to a Syrian former general suspected of crimes against humanity in the latest case to throw the spotlight on Austria's spy service.\n<\/p>\n
\n The three former intelligence agency officials and a former asylum agency official were accused of abusing their office to procure asylum for Khaled al-Halabi, who served as head of state security in the northern city of Raqa from 2009-2013.\n<\/p>\n
\n In 2016, an international non-profit organisation tipped off Austrian authorities about war crimes allegations against al-Halabi after locating him in Vienna.\n<\/p>\n
\n He was allegedly granted asylum under a deal with Mossad, Israel's secret service.\n<\/p>\n
\n A court found the four men not guilty of abuse of power, ruling the accusations against them had not been proven beyond reasonable doubt, a court spokeswoman told AFP.\n<\/p>\n
\n The verdict can still be appealed.\n<\/p>\n
\n The trial against a fifth man, also a former spy service official who was originally charged with the other four, was postponed due to health issues. He will get a separate trial later.\n<\/p>\n
\n Prosecutors accused the men of helping al-Halabi transfer from France to Austria and obtain asylum in 2015 \"under false pretences\" with a \"cooperation agreement\" between a \"foreign partner service\" and Austria's intelligence agency.\n<\/p>\n
\n Austrian media have identified the \"foreign partner service\" as Mossad.\n<\/p>\n
\n Al-Halabi left Syria in 2013 and arrived in France in 2014, but was reportedly denied asylum due to concerns that he might have been involved in war crimes.\n<\/p>\n
\n The investigation into al-Halabi is ongoing.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Commission for International Justice and Accountability (CIJA) accuses the branch under al-Halabi's command of committing \"egregious crimes against humanity, including murder and torture, along with sexual offences... with his knowledge\".\n<\/p>\n
\n Across Europe, Syrian refugees have drawn on the principle of universal jurisdiction to ensure suspected war criminals are held accountable.\n<\/p>\n
\n Courts in Austria, Germany and Sweden have convicted former Syrian officials in connection with the country's devastating civil war.\n<\/p>\n
\n The reputation of Austria's spy service was tarnished by several scandals in past years, including accusations of Austrian officials leaking information to Russia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Vienna court on Monday acquitted four ex-officials of allegedly granting asylum to a Syrian former general suspected of crimes against humanity in the latest case to throw the spotlight on Austria's spy service. The three former intelligence agency officials and a former asylum agency official were accused of abusing their office to procure asylum […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-119170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n