At least seven people arrested in Germany and Sweden on suspicion of war crimes in Syria

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — At least seven people have been arrested in Germany and Sweden on suspicion of committing crimes against humanity and war crimes in Syria between 2012 and 2014, authorities in the two countries said Wednesday.

In a coordinated operation involving the EU agency for judicial cooperation Eurojust, the EU police agency Europol and several other unnamed European countries, four people were arrested in Germany and three in Sweden.

The German Attorney General said that those arrested in Germany were “strongly suspected of having killed or attempted to kill civilians.” Some of those arrested were also suspected of torture.

The four arrested in Germany are known only as Jihad A., Mahmoud A., Sameer S. and Wael S. and have been associated with the Free Palestine Movement, an armed militia in Syria, since early 2011. For privacy reasons, German prosecutors did not disclose their last names. Sweden did not reveal the identities of the three arrested.

At the time, the militia was exercising control over the predominantly Palestinian district of al-Yarmouk in Damascus on behalf of the Syrian regime, the German Federal Prosecutor’s Office said. Since July 2013, the Syrian regime had completely sealed off the area, leading to a shortage of food, water and medical supplies.

Among other things, all suspects are said to have participated in the violent suppression of a peaceful anti-government protest in al-Yarmouk on July 13, 2012. They deliberately shot at civilian demonstrators. Six people died and others were seriously injured, the German statement said.

The German Federal Prosecutor’s Office also accused some of them of repeatedly severely mistreating civilians from al-Yarmouk. The incidents occurred between mid-2012 and 2014.

In one case, a man was handed over to Syrian military intelligence, who reportedly imprisoned and tortured him. In another case, a woman was allegedly forced to pay for the release of her underage son with her family jewelry and threatened with rape.

Three of those arrested – Jihad A., Sameer S. and Wael S. – are stateless Syrian Palestinians, while Mazhar J. is a Syrian citizen.

The four were arrested in Berlin, Frankenthal and near Boizenburg in southwest and northeast Germany respectively. The home of another suspect, whose name was not given and who was not arrested, was searched in the western city of Essen.

They will be brought before an investigating judge at the Federal Court of Justice, who will read out their arrest warrants and decide whether to impose pre-trial detention. The indictment will take place on Monday and Tuesday, the public prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

In Sweden, the public prosecutor’s office did not release any details about those arrested. The prosecutor said a decision had to be made by Saturday afternoon on whether they should be detained or released.

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Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin contributed to this report.