{"id":79534,"date":"2021-07-08T11:12:30","date_gmt":"2021-07-08T09:12:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/?p=79534"},"modified":"2021-07-08T11:12:32","modified_gmt":"2021-07-08T09:12:32","slug":"syrian-trial-germany-role-doctors-hospitals-iassad-regimes-prison-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/79534-syrian-trial-germany-role-doctors-hospitals-iassad-regimes-prison-system.html","title":{"rendered":"Syrian trial in Germany: the role of doctors and hospitals in the Assad regime\u2019s prison system"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong><strong>In the Al-Khatib trial in Koblenz, Germany, a doctor testified about treating prisoners in the Syrian Secret Service\u2019s Branch 251. He reported severe injuries, and deaths on an almost daily basis. But while he was tasked with improving inmates\u2019 medical conditions, other testimonies have described hospitals as places of torture, and doctors as participants in the abuse of detainees by the government\u2019s security services.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Most of his patients had looked like the bodies in the infamous <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/45964-syrian-torture-trial-caesar-files-court-first-time.html\">Caesar photos<\/a>: pale with a tinge of yellow, hair unkempt, clothes old and torn. \u201cAll of them had abscesses and swellings. All of them were very thin and malnourished\u201d, said the witness who testified in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/46253-koblenz-first-syrian-state-crimes-trial-in-europe.html\">Al-Khatib trial in Germany<\/a> at the end of June. In 2012, the now 36-year-old Syrian had been working as an assistant doctor at the Red Crescent Hospital, directly opposite the General Secret Service\u2019s Branch 251 in Damascus, also known as the Al-Khatib Branch. He and his colleagues were tasked with checking up on the detainees in the branch\u2019s underground prison. They treated small injuries like abscesses on arms and feet, or small wounds on heads and other body parts, said the witness. But they also treated big ones, such as open wounds that exposed arteries and sinews, broken bones or limbs that had swollen to five times their normal size. \u201cThe injuries were unlike anything we had learned while studying medicine at university\u201d, he said. \u201cIt was the first time we saw cases like these.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In Koblenz, Germany, former secret service officer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/76561-syrian-trial-germany-personal-encounters-colonel-raslan.html\">Anwar Raslan<\/a> stands accused of crimes against humanity, allegedly committed in Syria. During his time as head of investigations at the Al-Khatib branch in Damascus, he is said to have been responsible for 58 killings, 4000 cases of torture and several cases of sexual violence starting in 2011, when thousands of anti-regime protesters were arrested by the secret services. More than 70 survivors, experts and secret service insiders have testified since the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/44167-first-time-torture-assad-regime-discussed-in-court.html\">beginning of the trial in April 2020<\/a>, but until now, medical staff has neither testified nor been mentioned much. The judges have been asking every ex-detainee in court about the issue, taking the lack of medical care into their account of the general prison conditions. Most survivors said that they had received no or hardly any medical care during their detention in branch 251 and other prisons. However, the few testimonies that did mention doctors and hospitals indicated that they had played an important role in the Syrian prison system. Some doctors, like the witness, treated tortured prisoners\u2019 injuries, while others allegedly participated in their abuse in hospitals that became extensions of the secret services\u2019 notorious prisons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u201cIf the patient was dead, our job was done\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The witness appeared in court wearing black and golden sneakers, a fanny pack, and his thinning dark hair in a ponytail. He had studied medicine in Aleppo and was then completing his obligatory medical training at the Red Crescent Hospital in Damascus. It must have been July 2012, he remembers, when officers from the Al-Khatib branch came to the neighbouring hospital and met with the administration to organize daily visits of assistant doctors to the branch\u2019s prison. \u201cIt was during Ramadan\u201d, he told the judges, adding that the atmosphere at work had been quiet, as many of the doctors were fasting. During their first visit to the branch, they stayed for two hours, treating more than one hundred patients. On other visits, they spent up to five hours in the underground prison. There, the officers told them how to proceed: \u201cWe were to speak to the patients about their ailments and nothing else. The patients were not allowed to tell us where their injuries came from. If they mentioned the abuse, they would be beaten immediately.\u201d The witness and his colleagues were only able to help the prisoners to a certain extent. If someone needed antibiotics, they were allowed to give them one pill, but not the whole box. \u201cThe orders were clear\u201c, said the witness. \u201cGive the prisoner what he urgently needs, but nothing more.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And then there were the deaths \u2013 almost every day, according to the witness. Some died in the branch, others at the hospital, where they had been transferred after falling unconscious. The witness said he saw at least fifty deaths with his own eyes, but that he knew from his colleagues that there had been more. \u201cI still remember the first dead body I saw in the cell opposite the staircase\u201d, he said, describing it as pale with a dry, white tongue, naked and barefoot. \u201cWe were not allowed to determine the cause of death\u201d, he said. The doctors were only there to decide whether or not a patient could be treated. \u201cIf the patient was dead, our job was done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The witness explained that it was different with prisoners who were transferred and then died in the Red Crescent hospital. There, the doctors were allowed to determine the cause of death, which mostly turned out to be heart or kidney failure, low blood pressure due to dehydration, or sepsis as a result of injuries. This alone, however, did not reveal to them how the patients had reached their dire conditions. \u201cWe could tell that the heart had failed, but we did not know why it failed\u201d, the witness said. He assumed that torture itself did not directly lead to inmates\u2019 deaths, but that their overall condition combined with indirect consequences of torture, such as infection of wounds, had often been the reason. His assessment was an interesting addition to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/45964-syrian-torture-trial-caesar-files-court-first-time.html\">testimony of forensic expert<\/a> Marcus Rothschild in November 2020, who had analysed the Caesar photos with regard to injuries, signs and causes of death. One of his most puzzling findings had been that most of the bodies did not show any visible causes of death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Hospitals as places of torture<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Syrian hospitals were not only places where abused prisoners were taken to die, but also became places of torture themselves, as other testimonies have shown and as a witness told the Koblenz court a week later. He had worked as a clinical engineer, supplying hospitals in and around Damascus with medical devices. \u201cThe hospital had turned into a secret service branch\u201c, he said of the Mujtahid Hospital in Damascus. \u201cThe emergency ward was full of gunmen and military personnel beating patients.\u201d He added that injured protesters were often taken to hospitals, where they disappeared, and that this had happened to a close friend of his.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another witness who testified at the end of last year offered one of the most harrowing testimonies of the brutal torture he suffered in different secret service branches and finally in the Harasta military hospital, which he left barely alive. He had arrived at the hospital in an already very bad condition, after having been relentlessly beaten in Al-Khatib branch, among others. At the hospital, he was chained to a bed with another inmate, in a room with about twenty more beds. \u201cWe were beaten every minute of every day\u201d, the young man remembered. \u201cThey took turns beating us with chains and whips, knives and pipes. There were days that we spent unconscious.\u201c He said that he had been tortured in ways that he could not even describe. \u201cThey call it a hospital, but in reality, it is a place for torture. They take people there to kill them.\u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Testimonies like these could be of interest when the German judiciary opens <a href=\"https:\/\/syriaaccountability.org\/updates\/2021\/07\/01\/german-prosecutor-about-to-indict-syrian-doctor-for-crimes-against-humanity\/\">its next case<\/a> against Syrian doctor Alaa M. About a year ago, he was arrested in the state of Hesse in Western Germany, where he was working as a doctor once again, after having arrived there from Syria in 2015. He is being investigated for crimes against humanity, allegedly committed during his time as a doctor at the military hospital of Homs, where he is said to have tortured a patient who subsequently died. The German magazine <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spiegel.de\/panorama\/justiz\/hessen-generalbundesanwalt-ermittelt-gegen-syrischen-arzt-nehmt-ihn-mit-a-00000000-0002-0001-0000-000171037316\"><em>Der Spiegel<\/em> also reported<\/a> that he had allegedly operated on an anti-regime prisoner without anaesthesia, and set another one on fire. The indictment against him is expected soon, and the trial would start shortly after at the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"articleLink articleLink--editorRecommanded articleLink--textInImage articleLink--textTop\" style=\"\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t<div class=\"articleLinkSurTitle\">Recommended reading<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t<a class=\"articleLinkImageLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/45964-syrian-torture-trial-caesar-files-court-first-time.html\"><div class=\"articleLinkImageContainer \"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"540\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/06aa641240927e4747d0ce4747b17b1d-540x360.jpg\" class=\"articleLinkImage backgroundImageTag w-100 wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/06aa641240927e4747d0ce4747b17b1d-540x360.jpg 540w, https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/06aa641240927e4747d0ce4747b17b1d-730x487.jpg 730w, https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/06aa641240927e4747d0ce4747b17b1d.jpg 850w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 540px) 100vw, 540px\" \/><\/div><\/a>\r\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/45964-syrian-torture-trial-caesar-files-court-first-time.html\" class=\"articleLinkTitle articleLinkTitle--default\">\r\n\t\t\tSyrian torture trial: the \u201cCaesar\u201d files in court for the first time\r\n\t\t<\/a>\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the Al-Khatib trial in Koblenz, Germany, a doctor testified about treating prisoners in the Syrian Secret Service\u2019s Branch 251. He reported severe injuries, and deaths on an almost daily basis. But while he was tasked with improving inmates\u2019 medical conditions, other testimonies have described hospitals as places of torture, and doctors as participants in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":79528,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[566,2801],"tags":[2693,2733],"ji_location":[2239,2499],"class_list":["post-79534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-tribunals","category-universal-jurisdiction","tag-al-khatib-en","tag-coblence-en","ji_location-germany","ji_location-syria"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.3.1 (Yoast SEO v25.3.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Syrian trial in Germany: the role of doctors and hospitals in the Assad regime\u2019s prison system - JusticeInfo.net<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In the Al-Khatib trial in Koblenz, Germany, a doctor testified about treating prisoners in the Syrian Secret Service\u2019s Branch 251. 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But while he was tasked with improving inmates\u2019 medical conditions, other testimonies have described hospitals as places of torture, and doctors as participants in the abuse of detainees by the government\u2019s security services.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/79534-syrian-trial-germany-role-doctors-hospitals-iassad-regimes-prison-system.html","og_site_name":"JusticeInfo.net","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/JusticeInfo\/","article_published_time":"2021-07-08T09:12:30+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-07-08T09:12:32+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":800,"url":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Syria_medic-hospital-blood_@Anwar-Amro-AFP.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Hannah El-Hitami","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@hannahel711","twitter_site":"@justiceinfonet","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Hannah El-Hitami","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/79534-syrian-trial-germany-role-doctors-hospitals-iassad-regimes-prison-system.html#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/79534-syrian-trial-germany-role-doctors-hospitals-iassad-regimes-prison-system.html"},"author":{"name":"Hannah El-Hitami","@id":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/7e6d6d2f1c00766f198a636dfe98837c"},"headline":"Syrian trial in Germany: the role of doctors and hospitals in the Assad regime\u2019s prison system","datePublished":"2021-07-08T09:12:30+00:00","dateModified":"2021-07-08T09:12:32+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/79534-syrian-trial-germany-role-doctors-hospitals-iassad-regimes-prison-system.html"},"wordCount":1375,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/79534-syrian-trial-germany-role-doctors-hospitals-iassad-regimes-prison-system.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Syria_medic-hospital-blood_@Anwar-Amro-AFP.jpg","keywords":["Al-Khatib","Coblence"],"articleSection":["National tribunals","Universal jurisdiction"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/79534-syrian-trial-germany-role-doctors-hospitals-iassad-regimes-prison-system.html","url":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/79534-syrian-trial-germany-role-doctors-hospitals-iassad-regimes-prison-system.html","name":"Syrian trial in Germany: the role of doctors and hospitals in the Assad regime\u2019s prison system - JusticeInfo.net","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/79534-syrian-trial-germany-role-doctors-hospitals-iassad-regimes-prison-system.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/79534-syrian-trial-germany-role-doctors-hospitals-iassad-regimes-prison-system.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Syria_medic-hospital-blood_@Anwar-Amro-AFP.jpg","datePublished":"2021-07-08T09:12:30+00:00","dateModified":"2021-07-08T09:12:32+00:00","description":"In the Al-Khatib trial in Koblenz, Germany, a doctor testified about treating prisoners in the Syrian Secret Service\u2019s Branch 251. He reported severe injuries, and deaths on an almost daily basis. But while he was tasked with improving inmates\u2019 medical conditions, other testimonies have described hospitals as places of torture, and doctors as participants in the abuse of detainees by the government\u2019s security services.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/79534-syrian-trial-germany-role-doctors-hospitals-iassad-regimes-prison-system.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/79534-syrian-trial-germany-role-doctors-hospitals-iassad-regimes-prison-system.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/79534-syrian-trial-germany-role-doctors-hospitals-iassad-regimes-prison-system.html#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Syria_medic-hospital-blood_@Anwar-Amro-AFP.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Syria_medic-hospital-blood_@Anwar-Amro-AFP.jpg","width":1200,"height":800,"caption":"A Syrian medic has just treated injured protesters about 100 kilometres from Damascus in March 2011. Syria's medical staff and hospitals have been directly affected by the Assad regime's repression. \u00a9 Anwar Amro \/ AFP"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/79534-syrian-trial-germany-role-doctors-hospitals-iassad-regimes-prison-system.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Syrian trial in Germany: the role of doctors and hospitals in the Assad regime\u2019s prison system"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/","name":"JusticeInfo.net","description":"For justice to be done, it must be seen","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/#organization","name":"Justice Info","url":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/justiceinfo_logo-trans_1200x1200px.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/justiceinfo_logo-trans_1200x1200px.png","width":1199,"height":1200,"caption":"Justice Info"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/JusticeInfo\/","https:\/\/x.com\/justiceinfonet","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/justice-info","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCyCEsARodyuWtkWyhn-e7pA"]},{"@type":"Person","name":"Hannah El-Hitami","sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/hannahel711"],"url":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/auteur\/helhitami"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79534"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79545,"href":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79534\/revisions\/79545"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79534"},{"taxonomy":"ji_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ji_location?post=79534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}