A Syrian doctor accused of crimes against humanity for allegedly committing acts of torture against prisoners at military hospitals due to the country’s long-time civil war has gone on trial in Frankfurt, Germany. The trial against the doctor identified as Alaa M. started on Wednesday. Among the accusations against him is dousing a teenager’s genitals with alcohol and setting them on fire, kicking the broken arms and legs of prisoners and injecting prisoners complaining of mistreatment with unknown substances, according to the attorney general in Frankfurt, the German news service Deutsche Welle reported.
Alaa M. arrived in Germany in 2015 where he worked in several hospitals until his arrest in June 2020. He is being tried under the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows the prosecution of possible war crimes committed by foreigners in other states.
The trial begins days after a German court in Koblenz sentenced former Syrian colonel Anwar Raslan to life in jail for crimes against humanity. It was the first global trial over state-sponsored torture in Syria under the rule of President Bashar Assad.