Vienna trial convicts two former Syrian officials of torture abuses

An Austrian court in Vienna sentenced two former Syrian officials to eight years in prison each on Monday in a torture case built around abuses in Raqqa during Bashar al-Assad’s crackdown on dissent. The court also ordered 130,000 euros in compensation for victims after finding that the men knew about and were responsible for mistreatment in their custody.

The defendants, Khaled al-Halabi, a former brigadier general and intelligence chief in Raqqa, and Musab Abu Rukbah, a former senior police officer, were accused of abuses carried out between April 2011 and March 2013, when Syrian security forces moved against a civilian protest movement. Prosecutors said 21 detainees were tortured and abused under orders from Syria’s central government and the National Security Bureau. More than a dozen victims testified over the month-long trial, describing beatings, electric shocks and dousing with hot and cold water.

One witness said he was held naked for eight or nine days while cold water was repeatedly poured on him. Another said he was beaten with electric cables during interrogation. The court found the abuse was part of “systematic torture organised by the state,” and convicted both men of causing serious bodily harm, aggravated coercion, sexual coercion and sexual assault. Only Khaled al-Halabi was charged specifically with torture, and the court issued one acquittal in a count where violence could not be proven against a single victim.

The men had applied for asylum in Austria in 2015 and remained there until the trial. Khaled al-Halabi had been held in pre-trial detention since late December 2024, a period that will count toward his sentence.

The prosecution also argued that a secret agreement between Austrian and Israeli intelligence services helped Khaled al-Halabi settle in Austria. Senior Austrian officials suspected of protecting him were acquitted in 2023.