In February 2020, Syrian officials Anwar Raslan and Eyad Al-Gharib were arrested in Berlin and Koblenz, Germany. Raslan allegedly headed the Investigative Unit in the General Intelligence Service Detention Center in Damascus and Al-Gharib was alleged to be employed in a subdivision of this unit, Al-Khatib. Raslan reportedly perpetrated 4,000 cases of torture, 58 murders, and several individual cases of sexual assault and rape between 2011 and 2012. Al-Gharib was charged with aiding and abetting acts of torture while he was employed at Al-Khatib. The defendants were charged in Germany for crimes against humanity in violation of Section 7 of the VStGB (Code of Crimes Against International Law) and for other crimes of torture, murder, and assault, in violation of multiple sections of the StGB (Criminal Code).

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