Alaa M.
Facts
Alaa M. is a Syrian national. According to the arrest warrant, he worked as a doctor in a detention facility of the Military Intelligence Service in Homs (Syria). On 23 October 2011, a detainee suffered an epileptic seizure after being tortured during his interrogation. Alaa M., as a doctor in the facility, was asked to assist the detainee. However, Alaa M. entered the room where the detainee was held and started hitting him with a plastic pipe. The following day Alaa M. was again asked to assist the detainee whose medical condition had deteriorated. Alaa M., accompanied by another doctor, started hitting the detainee with a plastic pipe again until he lost consciousness. The victim died shortly afterwards, however the cause of his death has not been officially confirmed. According to the 2020 updated arrest warrant, Alaa M is suspected, inter alia, of having poured alcohol over the genitals of a 14- or 15-year-old boy, which he then ignited.
Procedure
On 19 June 2020, the Federal Public Prosecutor arrested the former doctor and alleged employee of the Syrian Military Intelligence service Alaa M. under the suspicion of crimes against humanity.
On 16 December 2020 the arrest warrant was extended to cover allegations of killing in one case, torture in 18 cases, inflicting grievous bodily and mental harm in one case, severe deprivation of physical liberty in seven cases (one of which led to death) and deprivation of reproductive capacity in one case, all of which are characterized as crimes against humanity.
On 15 July 2021, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office of the Higher Regional Court of Frankfurt indicted Alaa M. In early November, the main parts of the indictment were admitted for trial by the Higher Regional Court of Frankfurt. However, the Court declined to admit for trial ten cases that were part of the indictment for legal reasons.
Following an appeal by the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, the Federal Court of Justice on 18 January 2022 overturned the Higher Regional Court’s decision and admitted the remaining cases to proceed to trial. On 19 January 2022, the trial against Alaa M. began before the Higher Regional Court of Frankfurt.
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