Updated On: 13 January, 2022 04:07 PM IST | Koblenz | AP
The verdict in the landmark trial has been keenly anticipated by Syrians who suffered abuse or lost relatives at the hands of President Bashar Assad`s government in the country`s long-running conflict

This picture has been used for representational purpose
A German court has convicted a former Syrian secret police officer of crimes against humanity for overseeing the abuse of detainees at a jail near Damascus a decade ago.
The verdict Thursday in the landmark trial has been keenly anticipated by Syrians who suffered abuse or lost relatives at the hands of President Bashar Assad`s government in the country`s long-running conflict. The Koblenz state court concluded that Anwar Raslan was the senior officer in charge of a facility in the Syrian city of Douma known as Al Khatib, or Branch 251, where suspected opposition protesters were detained. It sentenced him to life in prison, German broadcaster n-tv reported. His lawyers asked the court last week to acquit their client, claiming that he never personally tortured anybody and that he defected in late 2012.