Sweden Jails Syrian Man for Life over 2012-2013 War Crimes

A Swedish court on Monday sentenced a 55-year-old man to life in jail for his role in war crimes during the Syrian civil war in 2012 and 2013. The court found that the man was guilty of participating in a shooting against a peaceful protest in July 2012 in the Damascus suburb of Yarmouk, where several demonstrators were killed, it said in a statement. It also found that he had served at a roadblock set up by the Syrian government in the same area from December 2012 to July 2013, where “a very large number of civilians” had been arrested and taken away to be tortured and in some cases killed. According to the court, both offences happened as part of the Syrian civil war, triggered by popular discontent with the rule of longtime leader Bashar al-Assad. “The district court has found the offences to be aggravated because they were directed at a large number of civilians and several people have died and been injured,” judge Hampus Lilja said, explaining this had warranted the life sentence. The man, who denied the charges, was born in Yarmouk, left Syria in 2013 and was granted asylum in Sweden, according to court documents viewed by AFP. He then gained Swedish citizenship in 2017. The court noted that the trial had taken 54 days and that a large number of people had been called as both plaintiffs and witnesses. Sweden has adopted a principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows it to try cases of serious crimes against international law regardless of where the offences took place.