\n A Dutch court Monday sentenced a Syrian man to 26 years in jail for the torture and rape of opponents of former president Bashar al-Assad during the country's civil war.\n<\/p>\n
\n The 58-year-old man, identified as Rafik A., was head of the interrogation unit of the National Defence Force (NDF) in the western Syrian city of Salamiyah in 2013 and 2014.\n<\/p>\n
\n The paramilitary NDF violently suppressed dissent against the Assad regime and imprisoned and tortured opponents.\n<\/p>\n
\n The court said victims were \"handcuffed and blindfolded, beaten with various objects and kicked for prolonged periods, folded up inside a car tyre, hung upside down, or electrocuted, often being forced to be naked.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n A. was also found guilty of sexually abusing multiple victims and raping one of them, the court said.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Time and again, the suspect created conditions of mortal terror, threat, pain, hopelessness and powerlessness,\" said the court in The Hague.\n<\/p>\n
\n He was convicted of 19 counts of crimes against humanity against eight victims.\n<\/p>\n
\n The court said the sentence was justified by \"the exceptional gravity of the offences and the suffering of the victims\".\n<\/p>\n
\n It was the first time anyone had been tried in the Netherlands for sexual violence as a crime against humanity.\n<\/p>\n
\n A. arrived in the Netherlands in 2021 and won temporary asylum, settling in the central town of Druten with his family.\n<\/p>\n
\n Police arrested him shortly afterwards following a tip.\n<\/p>\n
\n During his trial, A. denied the charges against him which he dismissed as a \"conspiracy\".\n<\/p>\n
\n His lawyers said A. himself was tortured by militias and is suffering from post traumatic stress syndrome.\n<\/p>\n
\n Several European countries are trying suspects from the Syrian civil war under the legal tool of universal jurisdiction, allowing judges to rule on alleged serious crimes committed abroad.\n<\/p>\n
\n Similar cases have been heard in France, Germany, Sweden, Belgium and Austria.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Dutch court Monday sentenced a Syrian man to 26 years in jail for the torture and rape of opponents of former president Bashar al-Assad during the country's civil war. The 58-year-old man, identified as Rafik A., was head of the interrogation unit of the National Defence Force (NDF) in the western Syrian city of […]<\/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-160367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n