Austrian Court Sentences Two Former Syrian Regime Officials for Torture

An Austrian court on Monday convicted two former Syrian officials for torturing opponents of the Assad regime.

The offenses, which occurred over a decade ago, were tried under universal jurisdiction, allowing courts to pursue serious crimes such as genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity irrespective of location or the nationalities of those involved.

This case is the latest in a series of European prosecutions targeting individuals accused of misconduct during Syria’s prolonged civil war, which stems from the Arab Spring uprisings that began in 2010.

Assad tried in absentia as Syria charges ex-regime members

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Who was on trial and what were their sentences?

The main defendant, Khaled al‑Halabi, served as a general and headed the General Intelligence Directorate in Raqqa from 2011 to 2013.

He received an eight‑year prison term after testimony from more than a dozen victims. The court had earlier found him guilty of torture, aggravated bodily harm and sexual assault against 21 individuals between 2011 and 2013, with witnesses reporting abuses such as head kicks, electric shocks to the genitals and water‑based torture.

The other defendant, Musab Abu Rukbah, a criminal police investigator, was convicted on related charges, excluding torture, and prosecutors referred to him as the “Angel of Death.”

The court noted that both men had at times ordered the offenses, failed to prevent them, and in some instances carried them out personally.

Both men had fled to Austria in 2015 under a secret arrangement between Israeli and Austrian intelligence agencies, according to prosecutors, and were living as refugees there before the trial began.

The verdict is subject to appeal, and both defendants have pleaded not guilty.

The former intelligence chief questioned the witness testimony, asserting he acted under orders, a stance prosecutors said mirrored the defenses used by Nazi war criminals and was rejected as an invalid excuse for war crimes.

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Raqqa, a diverse city on the Euphrates east of Aleppo, became a focal point of conflict after the Syrian civil war began in 2011. In 2013, rebel forces — including the al‑Nusra Front, then led by the future President Ahmed al‑Sharaa — drove out government troops, making it the first provincial capital to fall to opposition fighters. Fighters from other battle‑scarred regions such as Aleppo, Homs and Idlib soon joined, and in 2014 the Islamic State (IS) proclaimed Raqqa its headquarters.

IS held Raqqa until 2017, when Kurdish forces backed by the United States seized the city, which had been heavily devastated by years of bombardment.

The political wing of the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) maintained control of Raqqa until January 2026, after Assad’s regime collapsed in December 2024. However, the new government claimed to have taken control of roughly 80% of the Kurdish‑administered north‑eastern territory, including Raqqa, during a rapid offensive in mid‑January.

Edited by: Zac Crellin

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