Syrian sentenced to 26 years in prison by Dutch court for crimes against humanity

The man, identified only as Rafiq al Q. due to Dutch privacy regulations, went on trial in April facing charges including torture, sexual abuse and rape. The 58-year-old denied being involved and accused alleged victims and police of conspiring against him.

The sentence handed down by the District Court of The Hague is the latest against Syrian suspects in different countries since Assad was toppled from power in a decisive rebel offensive in December 2024 that followed years of grinding civil war. Assad fled Syria to longtime ally Russia.

The cases have cast light on the widespread killings and abuse in dozens of detention centers across Syria while Assad was in power. Torture, brutality, sexual violence and mass executions were rampant, according to activists, rights group and former prisoners.

The judges ruled that Rafiq al Q. was a member of the pro-Assad National Defense Force and between 2013 and 2014 worked as an interrogator for the paramilitary group during Syria's civil war. They said that saying evidence showed he was responsible for torturing people held at detention centers in Salamiyah, including beating them, suspending them upside down and administering electric shocks.

“The defendant was also guilty of sexually abusing multiple victims. He raped one of them,†the court said in a summary of its verdict. “The defendant repeatedly subjected the victims to conditions of extreme fear, threats, pain, hopelessness, and powerlessness. During the court hearings, the victims gave compelling testimonies about the impact this had on them and the consequences they continue to suffer to this day.â€

Wearing a striped shirt and sitting next to his lawyer with guards standing nearby, Rafiq al Q. appeared to make no comment as he was convicted and sentenced. He was acquitted on a number of charges where judges ruled there was insufficient evidence.

Rafiq al Q. claimed asylum in the Netherlands in 2021 and was living in the eastern town of Druten when he was arrested in 2023.

His trial was based on universal jurisdiction, a legal principle that allows suspects to be prosecuted for international offenses such as war crimes even if they are committed in another country.

Prosecutors and the defendant have 14 days to appeal the conviction and sentence.

The Dutch are not alone in prosecuting Syrians linked to the former Assad government.

Last year, a German court sentenced a Syrian doctor to life imprisonment for torture and war crimes in his Syrian homeland on Monday for killing two people and torturing nine in Syria between 2011 and 2012. And in 2024, a Paris court sentenced three high-ranking Syrian officials in absentia to life in prison for complicity in war crimes.

Syria also is seeking justice for crimes by officials loyal to Assad.

In April, the first public trial opened in Damascus of former government officials. Atef Najib, a former Syrian army brigadier general who was head of the Political Security Branch in southern Syria's Daraa province under Assad and who is also a cousin of the former president, appeared in the courtroom to face charges related to “crimes against the Syrian people,†state-run news agency SANA reported.