Syrian intelligence chief found guilty of torture by Austrian court

A former Syrian intelligence chief in the ​city of Raqqa has been found guilty of torture and sexual abuse of opponents of the former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, at a court in Vienna, Austria.

A second Syrian official, the former police chief in Raqqa, was also found guilty of abusing political opponents.

The case in Vienna was a relatively rare example of a European country claiming jurisdiction for crimes committed by agents of Assad’s government.

The former intelligence chief, named only as Khaled al-H. under Austrian privacy rules, was head of Syria’s ​General Intelligence Directorate in Raqqa from 2011, when the uprising against Assad began, until 2013 when the Free ⁠Syrian Army took over the city. He then fled Raqqa.

Khaled al-H., a member of the Druze ethno-religious minority, was found guilty of committing torture.

Both he and the second man, named as Moussab Abou R., were found guilty of sexual coercion, aggravated coercion and inflicting serious bodily harm.

They have each been sentenced to eight years in prison.

Prosecutors said that on many occasions the men ordered or failed to oppose the abuse of anti-government protestors in the city of Raqqa.

Both men denied the charges. Earlier in the trial Khaled al-H. said he had not ordered or witnessed any torture at his place of work.

He also said that as a member of a minority group, the Druze, he had been obliged to follow orders.

Prosecutors said the torture was carried out to “suppress the protest movement against the regime at the time and to intimidate the population”.

Some of their victims, former detainees in Raqqa, travelled from around Europe and Syria to testify at the trial. The court heard how that they were stripped naked and beaten, given electric shocks or doused in hot and cold water.

One man described being hit on the soles of his feet with electric cables. The court heard how many of the victims suffered from lasting mental trauma following the abuse.

The two Syrian officials applied for asylum in Austria in 2015.

According to media reports, Khaled al-H. was brought to Austria ⁠by the ​former domestic intelligence service, BVT, at the request of Israeli spy agency Mossad ​as part of “Operation White Milk.”

The Austrian Press Agency says the agreement was overseen by an Austrian official, Martin Weiss, the former head of the (BVT).

Weiss is now on the run in Dubai and is wanted for possible links to fugitive Austrian spy, Jan Marsalek, who is thought to be in Moscow.

The two men have the right to appeal against the verdicts.