Syrian torture victims file complaint in Germany over prison sex abuse
The criminal complaint accuses nine high-ranking Syrian officials of various sexual and gender-based crimes.
A group of men and women who say they suffered sexual abuse in Syrian regime prisons have submitted a criminal complaint to the German federal prosecutor, the Berlin-based organization representing them announced Thursday.
The complaint accuses nine high-ranking Syrian officials of crimes against humanity, including various sexual and gender-based crimes.
“I want the international community and judicial authorities to know what we went through just because we are women,” said one survivor. “My greatest motivation to participate in this complaint is my faith in Germany’s impartial judiciary.”
The seven Syrians — four women and three men — were held in Syria's air force intelligence prisons between April 2011 and October 2013. According to the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), which drafted the complaint, the former detainees “survived or witnessed various forms of sexual and gender-based violence including rape or its threat, sexual harassment, electrical shocks to the genitals, as well as forced nudity and forced abortion.”
