In a fourth such ruling, the court convicts another regime affiliate for committing “war crimes” against civilians. As the verdict brings the cause of victims and their families to the forefront, we hope it will further advance the course of justice in Syria.
The Day After (TDA) welcomes the ruling of the Berlin Regional Court, which condemns to life of imprisonment a member of a Palestinian militia tied to the Syrian regime. The court convicted the defendant on several counts, most notably perpetuating a “war crime” in the Yarmouk camp, south of Damascus, in 2014—killing four civilians at least. The verdict achieves justice for the families of the victims, nine years after they were robbed of their loved ones.
The court sentenced Moafak D. to aggravated life imprisonment for inflicting physical harm and willfully killing civilians who were there only to receive aid allocations. As it serves justice, the verdict also corroborates that for regime-affiliated militias—which have been terrorizing civilians for years, human rights violations and looting are common practices.
The verdict reveals how the Syrian regime depends on para-military groups to preserve power. The regime continues to recruit Syrian and foreign militia members to back its security services, granting both broad powers without limitations or controls and allowing them to perpetrate large-scale violations against Syrians while fostering impunity among their ranks. Notably, the regime had institutionalized several of these militias bestowing on them national titles and legitimized their actions by identifying them as para-military formations. Therefore, the conviction of individual local militia members is also an indicator of the systemic nature of the regime’s horrifying violations against civilians and thus shall fall directly within efforts to hold it accountable.
Moreover, TDA congratulates the families of the victims, the witnesses, and the plaintiffs. We praise their efforts, as they continue to support justice processes lengthy as they are, while aware that justice shall not be realized fully without a political solution that establishes a state governed by the rule of law and respect for institutions, principles of citizenship, and human rights. TDA hopes that current efforts yield similar verdicts to help push justice on its long path and consequently set into motion accountability processes to bring peace to all Syrian victims, including detention survivors, families of detainees, missing persons, and killed civilians.
