A German court is expected to issue a verdict against a former Syrian intelligence official accused of overseeing the murder of 58 people and the torture of thousands of others, in a landmark case expected to declare the actions of the Assad regime over the last decade a crime against humanity for the first time. Wassim Mukdad, a Syrian musician and witness in the trial, talks to journalists in Koblenz. Photograph: Thomas Frey/AP“It was always the same cycle,” said the musician Wassim Mukdad when he appeared in front of the Koblenz court in August 2020. During the trial, Raslan claimed that after arriving in Germany he lived in fear of retributions from the Syrian regime and contacted Berlin police in February 2015 because he was convinced he was being followed. The police officer who questioned him at the time told the Koblenz court that while Raslan’s fear of retribution was real, she had not considered him to be under real threat in Germany.

Source: The Guardian January 12, 2022 21:05 UTC