BERLIN: German police arrested on Tuesday a Syrian man suspected of committing crimes against humanity, including killing and torturing, as a militia leader in 2011 in Aleppo, prosecutors said.
The Syrian national, identified only as Anwar S. in line with German privacy laws, is suspected of being head of the “shabiha militia” deployed in Aleppo on behalf of the former Syrian leadership under then-President Bashar Assad.
Prosecutors said that on eight occasions between April and November 2011 after Friday prayers, the suspect and his militia hit civilians with batons, metal pipes and other tools to disperse protests. Electric shocks were also believed to have been used, they added in a statement.
Some protesters were handed over to police and intelligence authorities and, while detained, subjected to severe abuse, said the prosecutors, adding in once case, a protester died.
Reuters was not immediately able to contact Anwar S.’s lawyer for comment.
Germany has targeted several former Syrian officials in the last few years under universal jurisdiction laws that allow prosecutors to seek trials for suspects in crimes against humanity committed anywhere in the world.
German police arrest Syrian man suspected of crimes against humanity
https://arab.news/6ayxz
German police arrest Syrian man suspected of crimes against humanity
- Some protesters were handed over to police and intelligence authorities and, while detained, subjected to severe abuse, said the prosecutors, adding in once case, a protester died
Greek coast guard search for 15 after migrant boat found adrift
- The two survivors reported that the vessel had become unstable due to bad weather and there was no means of getting shelter, food or water
ATHENS: Greek coast guard were on Monday searching for 15 people who fell into the water from a migrant boat that was found drifting off the coast of Crete with 17 bodies on board.
The 17 fatalities, all of them men, were discovered on Saturday on the craft, which was taking on water and partially deflated, some 26 nautical miles (48 kilometers) southwest of the island.
Post-mortem examinations were being carried out to determine how they died but Greek public television channel ERT suggested they may have suffered from hypothermia or dehydration.
A Greek coast guard spokeswoman told AFP that two survivors reported that “15 people fell in the water” after the motor cut out on Thursday, then the vessel drifted for two days.
At the time, Crete and much of the rest of Greece was battered by heavy rain and storms.
The two survivors reported that the vessel had become unstable due to bad weather and there was no means of getting shelter, food or water.
The vessel had 34 people on board and had left the Libyan port of Tobruk on Wednesday, the Greek port authorities said. Most of those who died came from Sudan and Egypt.
It was initially spotted by a Turkish-flagged cargo ship on Saturday, triggering a search that included ships and aircraft from the Greek coast guard and the European Union border agency Frontex.
Migrants have been trying to reach Crete from Libya for the last year, as a way of entering the European Union. But the Mediterranean crossing is perilous.
In Brussels, the EU’s 27 members on Monday backed a significant tightening of immigration policy, including the concept of returning failed asylum-seekers to “return hubs” outside the bloc.
The UN refugee agency said more than 16,770 asylum seekers in the EU have arrived on Crete since the start of the year — more than any other island in the Aegean Sea.
Greece’s conservative government has also toughened its migration policy, suspending asylum claims for three months, particularly those coming to Crete from Libya.
