Hassan Faroud

FACTS

Faroud is alleged to have commanded a small unit of ISIS in the province of Homs, Syria. He is suspected of having ordered the occupation of Al-Sukhnah in the province of Homs and drawing up a “death list” of those who rejected the goals of ISIS and as a consequence should be executed. The executions included the public beheading of the local imam and at least 25 civilians including women and children in the town of Al-Sukhnah.

The accused is alleged to have personally participated in the execution of the imam as well as the murders of three other civilians in the area between 13 May and 15 May 2015. He also allegedly shot another person.

LEGAL PROCEDURE

Faroud left Syria in 2016 and illegally entered the Greek island of Leros on 27 February 2016, where he was granted refugee status on 27 October 2017.

The accused was a subject of investigation by the Greek Intelligence Service (EYP) since July 2018, when the Belgian intelligence services transmitted information concerning an unnamed individual allegedly involved in extremist activity as a member of ISIS. National investigations were coordinated by Eurojust, the European judicial cooperation agency. One month later, the EYP managed to identify this individual as Faroud, but no sufficient information was found to prove he belonged to ISIS.

In August 2018, the accused was convicted in Malta for living there with forged identification documents. He was sentenced to six months of imprisonment, suspended for two years and ordered to leave Malta. At that time, there was still no further information confirming his ties with ISIS.

On 30 December 2018, Faroud was caught using forged travel documents again in Budapest’s Listzt Ferenc Airport. He subsequently received a suspended prison sentence and was set to be expelled from Hungary to Greece. He was detained in Budapest’s Nyírbátor asylum detention facility, awaiting his return.

On 22 March 2019, based on information obtained by European national intelligence services, a Budapest Court ordered the detention of Hassan Faroud for alleged murders committed in Syria.

The accused was subsequently arrested by the Hungarian Counterterrorism Center (TEK) at the Budapest Nyírbátor migrants’ detention facility where he was detained, awaiting his deportation to Greece where he had refugee status.

In 2020, the Court found Hassan Faroud guilty of crimes against humanity committed as a part of a criminal organization and sentenced him to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after 30 years.

The Prosecution appealed the judgment and sentence to include the offense of terrorism and for more serious punishment, namely life imprisonment without parole. The accused appealed seeking acquittal.