Volkswacht Bodensee - Austrian court sentences Syrian torturers to 8 years in jail

The trial is the latest to see suspects from the Syrian civil war tried in European courts under the legal tool of universal jurisdiction, allowing judges to rule on serious alleged crimes committed abroad.

It has also caused a media stir in the Alpine nation, with prosecutors claiming that a secret agreement between the Austrian and Israeli intelligence services allowed the ex-general to settle down in Austria.

Khaled al-Halabi, a 63-year-old former brigadier general in Syria's intelligence services, was found guilty of torture, aggravated coercion, sexual coercion and multiple counts of serious bodily harm, the court said in a statement.

Musab Abu Rukbah, 54, a former police lieutenant colonel, was likewise found guilty of serious bodily harm, aggravated coercion and sexual coercion.

The court found that the pair's abuses, which took place in the city of Raqa between April 2011 and March 2013, were committed as part of "systematic torture organised by the state".

Both had pleaded not guilty at the start of their trial in June, during which several victims testified to having been severely beaten by guards working under the pair's command.

Just one acquittal was issued, in a case where it could not be proven that violence had been committed against one of the victims.

Their defence lawyers have yet to say whether they will appeal Monday's judgement.

Austrian prosecutors accused the duo of "having, on numerous occasions, ordered or failed to oppose the mistreatment of members of a protest movement".

Having been in custody since late December 2024, Halabi's time in pre-trial detention will count towards his eight-year sentence.

- 'Afraid to this day' -

Halabi -- a member of the Druze minority, who fled Raqa in 2013, just before the Islamic State group overran the city -- denied that torture took place on his watch.

But several detainees testified to the court that they were kept in crowded, tiny cells, with one of them saying he was held naked for eight or nine days, with cold water repeatedly poured on him.

"I'm still afraid to this day," one man told the court, recounting how the soles of his feet were beaten with electric cables while Halabi interrogated him.

Besides the jail sentences, the court ordered the pair to pay a total of 130,000 euros ($148,000) in compensation to the victims.

The case has been keenly followed in Austria, where the two Syrians applied for asylum in 2015.

Senior Austrian officials suspected of having protected the former brigadier general were acquitted in 2023.

Prosecutors had accused them of helping Halabi obtain sanctuary in the Alpine country, referencing an agreement allegedly concluded in May 2015 with Israel's Mossad intelligence service.

The Mossad is said to have brought the Syrian military officer to Austria from France, where he was at the time, according to media reports.

When questioned, Halabi told the court that he had received help from his relatives.

Former Syrian officials have also faced prosecution in France, Germany, Sweden and Belgium for crimes allegedly committed during the country's civil war.

S.Gantenbein--VB