German federal court sentences Syrian rebel with Islamic State links to twelve years in prison

The Stuttgart Higher Regional Court sentenced a unnamed “Free Syrian Army” member earlier this month to twelve years in prison for war crimes committed in Syria and for links to Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

The decision was made public on Monday and the sentencing follows the rejection of the defendant’s appeal by the Third Criminal Senate of the Federal Court of Justice, which found no error in the law with respect to the Stuttgart court’s judgment making it final.

The court found that the defendant partook in several battles against the Syrian regime in 2012 as part of a sub-unit of the “Free Syrian Army.” Specifically, he had taken a captured member of a militia supporting the Syrian government to his unit’s headquarters, and executed him while he was handcuffed.

However, there is some evidence indicating that the man did not die from the defendant’s shots but rather from shots fired by other individuals.

According to the court, the defendant joined ISIS in June 2014 and within a month of his joining the group, he and two other members allegedly captured and beat two youngsters for over thirty minutes in a school used as a prison.

It is also alleged that he detained another person in the same school for violating the ISIS code of conduct and that he performed road-side checks and made other contributions to the group until he left Syria in October 2014.

Source: Jurist