No. 35/2025
Today, the 5th Senate for Criminal Matters (State Security Senate [Staatsschutzsenat]) of the Higher Regional Court (OLG) Frankfurt/Main found 40-year-old Syrian national Alaa M. guilty of several counts of crimes against humanity, war crimes against persons and murder. Alaa M. was sentenced to lifelong imprisonment as a cumulative sentence. In addition, the Senate established the particular gravity of the guilt and ordered the defendant to be placed in preventive detention after imprisonment.
After a total of 188 days of main hearing, the Senate considered it proven that the defendant was guilty of ten counts of crimes against humanity, in two cases among other things by killing a person and in further eight cases by torture, in two of these simultaneously in conjunction with attempted crimes against humanity by depriving another person of the ability to reproduce. One of the convicted cases also constitutes the offense of murder, three other cases also amount to war crimes against persons.
The Senate found that in the years 2011 and 2012, the defendant while working as a civilian doctor in a Syrian military hospital in Homs and in the prison branch 261 of the Military Intelligence Services in Homs caused severe bodily harm to incarcerated patients said to be members of the opposition against the Assad regime, killing two of them intentionally.
According to the findings of the Senate, the conviction is specifically based on two cases in which the defendant exposed the genitals of the victims, including a boy aged 14 or 15 at the most, and set them on fire using disinfectant alcohol. In further cases the defendant hit the heads of detained patients using catheters or his fist. In one case he squeezed one patient’s genitals. On one patient who had suffered a femoral fracture, the defendant performed part of a surgical procedure - the straightening of the fracture - without anesthesia.
The defendant mistreated two patients, one of whom suffered from epilepsy and had had seizures. Instead of providing medical care to this patient, the defendant administered him a lethal pill. As intended by the defendant, the patient died subsequently.
Together with other hospital staff the defendant beat another patient, who had been hung up on a rope or chain for torture. After the prisoner was lowered to the ground, the defendant burned his arm using disinfectant alcohol. The defendant intentionally stepped with his shoe on a festering elbow wound of another prisoner. When blood and pus oozed out, the defendant poured disinfectant alcohol over the wound and set it on fire. In addition, he massively kicked another victim in the mouth and beat him to unconsciousness using a flexible baton.
In one case, the defendant intentionally killed a resisting prisoner by means of an injection. According to the findings of the Senate, the defendant thereby acted out o base motives as he wanted to demonstrate his power to the other prisoners present and at the same time set an example in order to suppress the rebellion of a part of the Syrian population.
According to the findings of the Senate, all of the defendant’s actions described above were part of an extensive and systematic attack carried out by the Syrian regime under the former president of State Bashar al-Assad against parts of its own civilian population
since the so-called Arab Spring. As a follower of Assad, the defendant wanted to punish actual or suspected opponents of the regime, while at the same time taking pleasure in torturing them. By 2012 at the latest, once the clashes between the regime and its opponents had escalated into a non-international armed conflict, the actions of the defendant were also directed against persons protected under international humanitarian law.
The defendant denied the charges brought against him. He was convicted primarily through the examination of more than 50 witnesses, amongst them former medical colleagues form the military hospital in Homs as well as victims abused by the defendant. Some of the witnesses had to be specially protected by the Bundeskriminalamt (Federal Office of Criminal Investigation). In addition, several hundred documents and exhibits were presented and examined in the proceedings and numerous expert witnesses were heard on issues such as forensic medicine and linguistics.
The Senate sentenced the defendant to lifelong imprisonment for crimes against humanity by killing and for murder. The sentence was set out as a cumulative penalty and thus also includes the individual penalties handed out in the other cases mentioned above. The Senate’s finding of particular gravity of guilt is based above all on the large number of crimes against humanity committed by the defendant, the length of the time over which the offenses were committed and the fact that the defendant abused his medical position.
At the same time, the Senate ordered the defendant to be placed in preventive detention after imprisonment the defendant poses a danger to the general public as a result of his propensity to commit serious crimes. This finding of the Senate is largely based on the testimony of a forensic-psychiatric expert witness who stated that the defendant has sadistic tendencies and that these, together with other personal traits, constitute a corresponding risk of relapse.
The judgment is not final yet. The parties to the proceedings, especially the defendant and his defense lawyers, can lodge an appeal against the judgment, which would have to be decided by the Federal Court of Justice (BGH).
With the judgment, the Senate revised the arrest warrant and ordered the continuation of pre-trial detention, which has been enforced against the defendant since June 20, 2020.
Higher Regional Court Frankfurt/Main, judgment of June 16, 2025, 5-3 StE 2/21 - 4 - 2/21
English version: dep. press spokeswoman Dr. Kerstin Wierse
Supplement
1. Wording of the pronounced judgment:
The defendant is guilty of two counts of crimes against humanity by killing a person, one of which committed in conjunction with war crimes against persons by killing and with murder, and one of which committed in conjunction with crimes against humanity by torture, as well as of eight counts of crimes against humanity by torture, in two of them in conjunction with war crimes against persons by torture and in another two cases in conjunction with attempted crimes against humanity by depriving a person of his ability to reproduce.
The defendant is therefore sentenced to life imprisonment as a total penalty.
The guilt of the defendant wields particular gravity.
The defendant is to be placed in preventive detention after imprisonment.
The defendant has to pay the costs of the proceedings as well as the necessary expenses of the private prosecuting parties.
2. Explanation on the finding of the particular gravity of the guilt and the order of preventive detention after imprisonment
The determination of the particular gravity of the guilt means that a suspension of the execution of the imposed life sentence on probation is generally not possible after 15 years. An application by the defendant to be released on parole after 15 years would have to be rejected due to the particular seriousness of the guilt. At the same time, the court of execution (in this case the 5th Senate for Criminal Matters) would have to determine a period of time still needing to be served. After this period has expired, the execution of the life sentence could be suspended on probation if there is a positive legal prognosis.
The placement in preventive detention ordered together with the sentence of life imprisonment means that although the prison sentence is executed in a regular correctional facility, the defendant already participates in the execution of the sentence in accordance with section 66c paragraph 2 in conjunction with paragraph 1 number 1 StGB. As a result, he is granted special care - such as socio-therapeutic treatment options. A subsequent suspension of the placement in preventive detention or its termination would require, in principle and similarly to the suspension of the sentence on probation, that the risk prognosis had changed in favor of the defendant.
3. Applied regulations (extracts)
Code of Crimes against International Law (Völkerstrafgesetzbuch - VStGB), Section 7 - Crimes against humanity
(1) Whoever, as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population,
1. kills a person,
…
5. tortures a person in their custody or otherwise under their control by causing that person substantial physical or mental harm or suffering where such harm or suffering does not arise only from sanctions that are compatible with international law,
6. commits sexual assault, sexual coercion, rape, enforced prostitution, sexual slavery or enforced sterilisation against a person; confines a forcibly impregnated person with the intention of affecting the ethnic composition of any population or in order to commit offences under sections 6 to 13; or aborts a pregnancy against the will or without the consent of the pregnant person,
…
incurs a penalty of imprisonment for life in the cases referred to under nos. 1 and 2, imprisonment for a term of at least five years in the cases referred to under nos. 3 to 7, and imprisonment for a term of at least three years in the cases referred to under nos. 8 to 10.
Section 8 - War crimes against persons
(1) Whoever, in connection with an international or non-international armed conflict,
1. kills a person who is to be protected under international humanitarian law,
…
3. treats a person who is to be protected under international humanitarian law cruelly or inhumanly by causing them substantial physical or mental harm or suffering, especially by torturing or mutilating them,
…
incurs a penalty of imprisonment for life in the cases referred to under no. 1, imprisonment for a term of at least five years in the cases referred to under no. 2, imprisonment for a term of at least three years in the cases referred to under nos. 3 to 5, imprisonment for a term of at least two years in the cases referred to under nos. 6 to 8, and imprisonment for a term of at least one year in the cases referred to under no. 9.
(6) Persons who are to be protected under international humanitarian law are defined as follows:
…
2. in non-international armed conflicts: the wounded, the sick, the shipwrecked as well as persons taking no active part in the hostilities who are in the power of the adverse party;
…
German Criminal Code (Strafgesetzbuch - StGB)
Section 211 – Murder under specific aggravating circumstances (Mord)
(1) Whoever commits murder under the conditions of this provision incurs a penalty of imprisonment for life.
(2) A murderer under this provision is someone who kills a person
out of a lust to kill, to obtain sexual gratification, out of greed or otherwise base motives, perfidiously or cruelly or by means constituting a public danger or to facilitate or cover up another offence.
4. numbers
- duration of main hearing: 188 days
- number of witnesses heard: 56
- duration of witness examination: 155 days
- number of expert witnesses: 12
- duration of expert witness examination: 55 days