Austrian prosecutors on Wednesday (November 11) charged two former Syrian government officials with torture, sexual coercion, and other abuses against detained civilians -- the latest in a growing wave of European court cases targeting atrocities committed during Syria’s civil war. And involving those who later migrated towards Europe.

The move comes as Germany concludes a major war-crimes trial of Syrian rebels in Munich, underscoring Europe’s increasingly comprehensive pursuit of justice across all parties to the conflict, and the diverse nature of the Syrian migrant population across Europe.

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Austria indicts ex-security officers

The Austrian indictment focuses on events in Raqqa between 2011 and 2013, when protests against then-president Bashar al-Assad were met with a harsh security response. The defendants -- a former brigadier general in Syria’s intelligence services and a former lieutenant colonel who led Raqqa’s criminal police investigations unit -- are accused of participating in the systematic abuse of detainees held during the crackdown.

According to prosecutors, the charges include grievous bodily harm, sexual coercion, and, for one defendant, torture. At least 21 victims have so far been identified. The two men arrived in Austria as asylum seekers in 2015 and have lived in the country since; they now face sentences of up to 10 years if convicted.

Austria, home to roughly 100,000 Syrians, has become a key venue for such cases. Migrant survivors living in the country have played a central role in bringing forward evidence as European courts seek to hold individuals to account for crimes committed in Syria.

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Universal jurisdiction

The case in Austria also fits into a broader international trend of foreign courts pursuing Syrian officials under the principle of universal jurisdiction. The doctrine allows national courts to prosecute grave crimes -- including war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and torture -- even when committed in another country by foreign nationals against foreign victims. It is rooted in the idea that certain offenses are so serious they harm the international community as a whole, giving any state the authority to act when the country where the crimes occurred is unable or unwilling to do so.

In recent months, a senior Syrian security official was indicted abroad on charges of torture, extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances and other abuses amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The case, implicating a high-ranking figure in Syria’s security apparatus, highlights the growing momentum to hold former Assad-era officials accountable even for crimes committed inside Syria. It also underscores the challenges of gathering evidence from a war zone, protecting witnesses, and pursuing justice in the absence of a functioning domestic or international tribunal capable of addressing mass atrocities.

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Germany convicts Syrian rebels in separate Munich trial

The Austrian charges come just days after a major ruling in Germany, where the Higher Regional Court in Munich convicted three Syrian men of war crimes and membership or leadership of a foreign terrorist organization. Their crimes, committed during the same civil war but on the opposite side, reflect the broadening scope of European efforts to hold perpetrators accountable regardless of political allegiance.

After 86 trial days, the men were sentenced to four and a half years, seven years, and nine years and ten months in prison. The court found that they belonged to Liwa Jund al-Rahman (“Brigade of the Soldiers of the Merciful”), a rebel faction formed during the uprising that later adopted Islamist positions and ultimately joined the Islamic State (IS) in 2014.

The leader of the group, who received the longest sentence, was found to have overseen military strategy and ideological direction, and profited personally from oil-field revenues in Deir ez-Zor province. A second defendant was found guilty of filming combat operations and an IS-ordered attack on a Shiite village, posting the footage online as propaganda. The third man was found to have commanded a company within the group after its absorption into IS.

In court, the defendants sought to frame their actions as part of a "freedom struggle" against the Assad regime. But the judges rejected that argument. The court emphasized that the scale of abuses by Assad’s forces "cannot justify" war crimes committed by opposition groups and that international law grants "no right to armed resistance against regular troops." Expert witnesses testified to the extreme brutality of IS and the evolution of the rebel faction into a jihadist militia on the ground in Syria.

All three men fled to Germany after IS’s military defeat and were later arrested.

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A European push for justice

The Austrian and German cases illustrate a notable shift: European courts are not only prosecuting Syrian government officials alone but are also bringing cases against rebels, militia leaders, and Islamic State members. This broadening of accountability reflects recognition that grave crimes were committed on different sides of the conflict, over more than a decade of fighting.

With Syria still lacking a viable justice mechanism after the fall of Bashar al-Assad, European trials remain one of the few paths through which survivors can seek redress. As evidence networks expand and more witnesses come forward from Europe’s large Syrian diaspora, prosecutors are expected to pursue additional cases in the coming months.

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With AFP