How France is tracking war criminals

 An interesting article about the french special unit OCLCH (Office central de lutte contre les crimes contre l'humanité, les génocides, les crimes de guerre) destined to identify and track war criminals. It has the particularity that it consists of members of Gendarmerie and Police.

The unit was created in 2013 and since then the men and women of this office tracked war criminals from Ex-Yugoslavia to Rwanda.

Recently, in may 2020, the officers of the OCLCH identified and arrested Félicien Kabuga bankroller of the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda 1992.

The same fate is approaching to syrian war criminals.

"Saturday May 16, 2020, Asnières (Hauts-de-Seine). The first light of day appears when investigators discreetly get out of their cars. Head to a neat five-story building. On the back of their uniform, five words: "Office central war crimes." It is here, in this small street in the Parisian suburbs, that lives one of the main culprits of the genocide in Rwanda, perpetrated in 1994. That year, 800,000 people, according to the UN, were killed in a few weeks after the decision of the Hutu extremists in power to exterminate the Tutsi ethnic group.

Félicien Kabuga is suspected of having financed a bloodthirsty militia and of having called for the massacre of Tutsis through the Mille Collines radio station, of which he was one of the leaders. This Rwandan is targeted by an arrest warrant from the International Mechanism, the UN structure responsible for completing the work of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). Pursued by international justice for ... twenty-six years.

Raslan Trial: testimony of former intelligence operative at "Al-Khatib"-branch

 An anonymous witness who claims to have worked at "Al-Khatib"-branch has incrimanted the defendant, detailing torture methods and the chain of command that Raslan was heading, taz: 

"The witness will appear “partially masked”, says the presiding judge Anne Kerber. Because of "the risk situation" he does not have to give his personal details. The identity of the witness, who testified on Wednesday and Thursday in room 128 of the Koblenz Higher Regional Court, is kept secret, in the files he is named Z 28/07/16. It is the first such testimony of its kind in the trial in which two Syrians have been on trial for crimes against humanity since the end of April.

Raslan trial: testimony of lawyer Anwar Bunni

 On june 5 2020 it was the turn of Berlin based lawyer and longstanding opposition figure Anwar Bunni to testify on his experiences with the defendant Anwar Raslan and how he recognised him in a Berlin refugee accomodation in 2015, taz:

"At noon, before his testimony in the Koblenz Higher Regional Court begins, Anwar al-Bunni stands in front of the courthouse with tears in his eyes. "It is good that there is this process, but that is not enough," says the human rights attorney, pointing to the framed photo portraits behind him.

Raslan Trial: testimony of film director Feras Fayyad

 On june 6 film director Feras Fayyad, notable for his documentary "Last Men in Aleppo", has testified in court against defendant Anwar Raslan. Tazhttps://taz.de/Prozess-zu-Kriegsverbrechen-in-Syrien/!5686468/:

"Firas Fayyad thinks he can remember the birthmark on the face of the man who questioned him. It was noticeable, he says. And he had to think of his mother, who told him as a little boy about her own moles: Everyone stands for a wish that has not come true. Fayyad is sitting on the witness bench in room 128 in the Koblenz Higher Regional Court - and what he says has little to do with unfulfilled wishes. And a lot with what you definitely don't want to experience: beatings, torture, rape.

Syrian torture-doctor arrested in Germany

A syrian individual who worked as a doctor in a prison in Homs was arrested for suspected torture on prisoners, writes german newspaper "Bild":

"This doctor is said to have tortured an inmate at least twice: the federal prosecutor's office accuses Alaa M. of crimes against humanity (Section 7 (1) No. 5 of the VStGB, Section 25 (2) of the Criminal Code) and dangerous bodily harm. On June 19, 2020, the BKA arrested the torture doctor in Hesse.

On June 20, 2020, the Syrian was brought before the investigative judge of the Federal Court of Justice, and the man has been in custody since then.

Alaa M. worked as a doctor in the Military Intelligence prison in Homs, Syria, in 2011. From October 23, 2011, the later torture victim A. was arrested for participating in a demo. Following a "torture session", he suffered an epileptic attack. When Alaa M. was called in, he is said not to have helped the victim, but to have beaten him up with a plastic tube.

The next day, Alaa M. is said to have knocked the tortured victim out again, this time accompanied by a colleague - the victim later died. The accused entered Germany in mid-2015 and worked here as a doctor."

In an updated version of the article, the accusations against Alaa M. are more precise: 

"But the summoned doctor Alaa M. did not care for A., according to the GBA - but hit him with a plastic tube and kicked him after A. went down. The victim's condition worsened the next day, A was unable to walk. Fellow inmates asked for medical help again, but Alaa M. and another prison doctor hit A until he passed out, was finally put in a blanket and carried away by guards, and then died. After his brother was released and paid a high bribe to the regime henchmen, he was handed over the body. This showed further traces of torture, including holes that had been drilled in his skull. 

Several witnesses on the Qatari television channel “al-Jazeera” reported that they recognized the torture doctor Alaa M. in Germany. Alaa M. is said to have poured alcohol over the penis of another prisoner and then set it on fire, saying that the prisoner had suffered severe burns.

In 2015 Alaa M. left Syria and traveled to Germany - where he worked as a doctor again. He is said to have practiced as an orthopedist in Bad Wildungen for years. Now Alaa M. has to answer for crimes against humanity and dangerous bodily harm." 

 

Rifaat Al Assad convicted to 4 years in prison by french court

BBC:  

"Rifaat al-Assad has been under investigation in France since 2014, when the legal NGO Sherpa, which defends victims of alleged economic crimes, filed a complaint saying the value of his property empire far exceeded his known income.

Five years later, the French judicial authorities decided that he should stand trial for crimes allegedly committed between 1984 and 2016, including organised money laundering, aggravated tax fraud and misappropriation of Syrian state funds.

The trial opened on 9 December last year. Assad denied the charges, saying he was given gifts by the Saudi royal family.

His reported French fortune includes two Paris townhouses, a stud farm, a chateau and 7,300 square metres of office space in Lyon. Several luxury properties have already been seized by French authorities.

Assad and his family also have a portfolio of 507 properties in Spain valued at around €695m (£585m).

The properties were seized by the Spanish authorities in 2017 as part of a separate investigation into alleged money-laundering activities by Assad and 13 other people, who have again denied any wrongdoing."

SPIEGEL: The internals of the Assad-Makhlouf-feud

DER SPIEGEL's Christoph Reuters gives interesting insides of the until recently top secret dirty laundry of the two powerful families:

"Rami Makhlouf's Facebook videos are dangerous. No mere mortal would ever survive such a thing in Assad's empire. Ultimately, though, these direct challenges to the president's authority could prove to be a life-saving maneuver. Those who fall out of favor with the regime, after all, tend to be removed via "suicide," in the form of several bullets in the back of the head. But after these videos, it is unlikely that anyone would believe that Makhlouf took his own life, should he turn up dead.

Makhlouf, in any case, is still living in Syria, allegedly having moved from his estate in Jaafur, near Damascus, to his hometown of Latakia. But his videos also haven't yet triggered an uprising by loyal Alawites or among the thousands of people on Makhlouf's payroll. At least not yet. The authorities have recently been ratcheting up the pressure. Not only did the Finance Ministry order the seizure of assets belonging to Rami and to his wife and children, but he has also been slapped with a travel ban."

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/the-assads-against-the-makhloufs-a-bitter-feud-over-power-and-money-erupts-in-syria-a-eb2b062a-c0c1-4b88-9966-244a15b49f4b