A German court has sentenced Syrian doctor Alaa Mousa to life in prison for committing crimes against humanity during his time at military hospitals in Syria under former president Bashar al-Assad.
The 40-year-old physician was found guilty of multiple acts of torture and murder between 2011 and 2012, at a time when Assad’s regime was violently suppressing opposition. Federal prosecutors accused Mousa of torturing patients on 18 separate occasions at military hospitals in Damascus and Homs.
“The crimes were part of a brutal reaction by Assad’s dictatorial, unjust regime,” said presiding judge Christoph Koller.
The court found Mousa guilty of crimes against humanity, murder, torture, and war crimes. He denied the charges, insisting he had been powerless to intervene and forced to carry out such acts.
The “torture doctor” arrived in Germany in 2015 on a skilled-worker visa and started working as an orthopaedic doctor. Mousa was arrested in June 2020.
Witnesses played a critical role in the case. Former colleagues and detainees testified to Mousa’s involvement, with one saying he had been forced to carry the bodies of those Mousa had injected. Another described the Damascus military hospital as a “slaughterhouse”.
