Germany arrests 2 suspected Syrian ex-secret police members

BERLIN (AP) " German authorities have arrested two suspected former members of Syria's secret police on allegations of carrying out or aiding in crimes against humanity, officials said Wednesday.

Police arrested the men Tuesday in Berlin and the southwestern state of Rhineland-Palatinate, according to a statement by federal prosecutors.

The suspects were identified as 56-year-old Anwar R., a high-ranking member of Syria's General Intelligence Directorate, and 42-year-old Eyad A., who was part of a unit that operated a checkpoint in the region around the capital Damascus. The men's surnames weren't published, in line with German privacy rules.

Prosecutors said a third person was arrested Tuesday in France as part of a joint investigation, German prosecutors said. The man, who wasn't named, was allegedly a subordinate of Anwar R. German prosecutor's spokeswoman Frauke Koehler said there were no plans to extradite him from France.

The arrests were welcomed by the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, or ECCHR, a non-governmental organization that has been working to assist survivors of torture in Syria.

The group said the arrests could lead to the first criminal trial anywhere in the world "examining the responsibility of senior members of the Syrian intelligence agencies of President Bashar al-Assad for crimes of torture."

The Syrian security services' brutal repression against opposition activists was one of the reasons for anti-government protests that resulted in the outbreak of the country's civil war eight years ago.

German prosecutors said Anwar R. is accused of participating in the abuse of detainees at a prison he oversaw in the Damascus area between April 2011 and September 2012. As lead investigator, he allegedly ordered the use of systematic and brutal torture during the interrogation of anti-government activists at the al-Khatib facility.

The second man, Eyad A., is accused of "assisting in the killing of two people as well as the torture and physical abuse of at least 2,000 people" between July 2011 and January 2012, prosecutors said.

Eyad A.'s task was to conduct identity checks in order to find "deserters, demonstrators or people who were otherwise suspicious," prosecutors said. This involved operating a checkpoint where about 100 people were arrested each day and taken to the prison overseen by Anwar R., where they were tortured.

Eyad A.is alleged to have later participated in the searching of homes and the violent crackdown on a demonstration in the fall of 2011. Protesters who weren't able to flee were arrested and taken into detention, prosecutors said.

Both men left Syria in 2012. It wasn't immediately clear how and when they came to Germany. Hundreds of thousands of Syrians have claimed asylum in Germany since 2012, many of them alleging persecution in their home country.

ECCHR said six survivors of torture had been interviewed by federal prosecutors as part of their investigation.

"Should the suspect go on trial, the survivors of torture will join the case as private parties," ECCHR's general secretary, Wolfgang Kaleck, said in a statement.

He praised Germany for pursuing the cases, adding: "It sends a very important message to survivors of Assad's system of torture. Without justice, there will be no lasting peace in Syria."