German court sentences Syrian torture doctor to life imprisonment
A German court has sentenced a Syrian doctor to life imprisonment for killing two people and torturing nine others in his homeland between 2011 and 2012.
The Frankfurt Higher Regional Court delivered the verdict after a trial that lasted almost three and a half years.
The 40-year-old defendant, identified only as Alaa M due to German privacy law, was accused of committing crimes against perceived opponents of the Assad regime at military hospitals in Homs and Mezzeh at the start of the Syrian civil war.
The man, who later worked as an orthopaedic surgeon in northern Hesse, was detained in Germany in 2020 and was charged with murder, torture and crimes against humanity.
Alaa M pleaded not guilty, alleging that he was the victim of a conspiracy.
However, the Frankfurt court established that the particular gravity of his guilt, meaning that he is unlikely to be released after 15 years, as is often the case in Germany when people receive life sentences.
Christoph Koller, the presiding judge, told the German news agency dpa that the doctor had sadistic tendencies.
'Above all, the accused enjoyed harming people that seemed inferior and low-value to him,' Koller said.
"No torturer can be certain of impunity, no matter where he is," he added.
Koller said the Syrian doctor's sentencing would not have been possible without the willingness and courage of witnesses to share the details of their suffering.
Alaa M travelled to Germany in 2015 and worked as an orthopaedic surgeon in clinics in Hessisch Lichtenau (Werra-Meißner) and Bad Wildungen (Waldeck-Frankenberg).
His trial began in 2022, two years after his arrest, which occurred after witnesses recognised him from a documentary about Homs.
A ballistic missile fired from Iran struck the wall of a building in central Israel on Monday, breaching a reinforced shelter, a preliminary investigation by Israel's civilian protection military body has revealed.
At least four people were killed in that strike: three were found inside the shelter and one in a nearby building, where it is believed the force of the blast threw them.
Rescue teams were deployed to try to free those believed to be trapped under the rubble.
The incident has sparked widespread concern across Israel and intensified public anger towards the government amid reports that bunkers are failing to withstand strikes from heavy missiles.
The Israel Hayom daily paper quoted the Israeli Home Front Command as stating that approximately 40% of Tel Aviv residents live in buildings without shelters that meet current safety standards, and that tens of thousands of older buildings in the city lack proper protective infrastructure.
Tel Aviv and Haifa are already facing a severe shortage of bomb shelters amid escalating Iranian attacks. Israel Hayom quoted residents in the capital as saying they "have no shelter", adding that neighbours "are closing their shelter doors to us."
The shelter crisis gained renewed urgency after a spokesperson for the Iranian army declared that "shelters are no longer safe" and urged Israelis to evacuate all territories.
Israel's 1951 Civil Defence Law mandates that all residential and commercial buildings must include bomb shelters, although multiple buildings may share a single shelter.
Arab communities within the Green Line, the 1949 international boundary between Lebanon and Mandatory Palestine, also face significant gaps in preparedness against rocket attacks, largely due to longstanding neglect.
This includes a lack of adequate shelters and what many view as clear discrimination in the Israeli air defence system, which often designates Arab towns as "open areas," effectively excluding them from active protection during emergencies.
There is also a noted lack of compliance among some Arab citizens with Home Front Command guidelines, further complicating emergency response efforts.
On Saturday, Israeli air defences failed to intercept an Iranian missile, which hit a building in the city of Tamra. Four were killed in that strike, and several others were injured.
Tamra's Mayor Musa Abu Rumi told international media that only 40% of the town's 37,000 residents have access to safe rooms or adequate shelters. He also noted that Tamra lacks public bunkers, which are common in most Israeli cities and towns.
In response to the recent Iranian attacks, the municipality has decided to open educational facilities as shelters for residents who don't feel safe at home.
Shelter standards vary worldwide, shaped by each country's individual security threats, economic capacity, infrastructure and regulatory frameworks.
In conflict zones like Iran, Lebanon and Yemen, authorities often rely on metro stations and schools as makeshift shelters, as purpose-built fortified rooms are scarce.
Design, deployment and capacity criteria for bunkers also differ significantly.
For example, Switzerland boasts over 370,000 nuclear shelters, which are sufficient to accommodate its entire population.
Near Prague lies one of the most secretive nuclear shelters, a product of a 1980s collaboration between the then Soviet Union and what was at the time Czechoslovakia.
The world's largest underground bunker, known as the Oppidum, has been renovated to include a swimming pool, a helicopter landing pad and advanced defence systems.
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