Mustafa A, 35, has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for war crimes in Syria by a district court in The Hague.
A district court in The Hague convicted a former member of a Syrian pro-government armed group of complicity in torture and illegal arrests in Syria and sentenced him to 12 years in prison.
Judges ruled Monday that the 35-year-old man, identified in court only as Mustafa A, was involved in the 2012 arrest of a man in Syria. He later handed the man over to Syrian Air Force intelligence officials who ran a prison where he was tortured.
The court said the defendant was a leading member of Liwa al-Quds, or the Jerusalem Brigade. Liwa al-Quds is an armed group, composed mostly of Palestinian refugees living in Syria and founded during the early years of the more than 12-year war in Syria.
Mustafa A was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity for complicity in torture, inhuman treatment and illegal detention, as well as membership in a criminal organization.
Arrested in 2022, he had been living in the Netherlands since 2020 and had requested asylum there.
During the first session of the trial in early November, judges called witnesses who said he was involved in their violent arrests and gave details of the beatings and torture they suffered in prison.
At that time, despite being asked on numerous occasions for his reaction to statements and extracts from his own police interrogations and intercepted telephone calls, Mustafa A invoked his right to remain silent at all times.
Monday's sentencing marks the first time a Dutch court has convicted someone for crimes committed while fighting on the side of President Bashar al-Assad's government during the war in Syria. There have been a handful of similar convictions in Germany.
In recent years, Dutch courts have handed down war crimes convictions to several Syrian citizens who were members of opposition militias and other armed groups in Syria.
