NPR News:叙利亚前情报官员德国受审 被控危害人类罪

For the first time, Syrian officials are going to trial to face accusations of war crimes. The trial starts tomorrow in a courtroom in Germany. It's two former Syrian officials who are charged. This is all the result of evidence gathered over years, and it happens as the Syrian regime seems to be on the verge of winning that country's long civil war. NPR's Deborah Amos has been covering this case. She joins me now.
Hey, Deb.
DEBORAH AMOS, BYLINE: Hi there.
KELLY: Who is on trial, and what exactly are they charged with?
AMOS: A former Syrian intelligence officer and an accomplice. They'll face Syrian torture survivors in a German court. The charges are crimes against humanity. There are some big ideas here — accountability, a war crimes trial in a national court, Germany, at a time when the international system of tribunals is stalled because Russia, a Syrian regime ally, has veto power at the U.N.
KELLY: OK.
AMOS: Here's another big idea. German prosecutors are using the legal principle of universal jurisdiction, and that means German law allows for prosecutions of crimes against humanity, torture, even though the defendant and the plaintiffs are not German citizens.
KELLY: Fascinating. So that's the exact — what they're being charged with, crimes against humanity?
AMOS: Exactly.
KELLY: OK. I said this is — has come about because of evidence gathered over years. How did prosecutors build this case?
AMOS: Well, I have to say that the Syrian regime has repeatedly denied all torture allegations, but the evidence is overwhelming. First, there are photographs — thousands — smuggled out of Syria by a police photographer, images of bruised and battered corpses. And they're tagged with dates and prison numbers. And then there's a trove of government documents. It was collected by Syrian activists, smuggled out to the Commission for International Justice and Accountability, CIJA. It's an independent noNPRofit — more than 800,000 documents.
And here's Chris Engels. He's director of investigation for CIJA. Those documents are part of the evidence in the German court.
CHRIS ENGELS: What we hope to do with the documents is demonstrate who is in charge. And those documents, I think, are quite strong. What we need to do then is tie to that proof that abuse occurred under their watch. And that's where the importance of the victim testimony comes into play.

AMOS: Now, about a dozen Syrian torture victims are plaintiffs in this case. They'll tell their story in court. They'll face the accused, who's charged with crimes against humanity. Engels says this trial is about more than one mid-level official. The documents show systematic abuse across prisons in Syria.
ENGELS: It's quite clear the responsibility for that abuse goes all the way to the top.
KELLY: Deb, it's so striking, the image that it will be about a dozen torture victims who were the plaintiffs, who will be in court facing off against the men who've been charged. It prompts me to ask about all of the other people who have been tortured in this war. There are millions of Syrian refugees all over the world. Are they watching this particular trial closely?
AMOS: I think many are, and here's one, Omar Alshogre. He's not testifying, but he survived three years in a Syrian prison.
OMAR ALSHOGRE: I'm not sure if I can sleep the night before. I'm going to be thinking about those who are going to be standing in the court. It's so hurtful and painful. And it's powerful at the same time when you stand in front of the guy who ordered torture.
KELLY: Powerful to hear that. And, Deb, just to situate this in the bigger context, in Syria, we mentioned it looks like the regime led by Bashar al-Assad, that he is going to win. Does that make this trial more significant in the sense that it's going to be one of the few vehicles for accountability?
AMOS: Look. This conflict was incredibly brutal — using starvation, torture, besieging towns, denying medical treatment. And there will be autocrats across the region watching to see if there is accountability to these tactics.
KELLY: Thank you, Deb.
AMOS: Thank you.
KELLY: NPR's Deborah Amos.