Appeal after Indictment Against "Torture General" in Vienna

The decision of the Vienna Higher Regional Court could take several weeks. The accused are charged with, among other things, serious bodily harm, sexual coercion, and torture. The events date back several years: Khaleb Al H. was head of a department of the Syrian intelligence service from 2009 to 2013. The second accused led the criminal police investigation department in Raqqa from 2011 to 2013. Both are said to have not only been responsible for the mistreatment but also to have carried it out themselves. The Vienna Public Prosecutor's Office knows of 21 victims who would travel from Europe for the trial.

Former Prisoners Heavily Accuse Accused "Torture General"

There is a case for a quick processing as Al H. has been in pre-trial detention in Vienna's Josefstadt for almost a year. In contrast, the second accused, Abu R., is at liberty. According to APA information, the Higher Regional Court saw no reason for detention in his case.

According to statements from former prisoners, the detainees were subjected to extreme psychological abuse and were regularly and systematically tortured and humiliated through beatings, electric shocks, and the use of primitive instruments intended to cause severe pain. Terrible conditions are also said to have prevailed in the criminal police detention rooms: sometimes 25 or more prisoners were housed in a five by five meter cell. Neither were the inmates informed about the duration of their detention, nor were their relatives notified of their whereabouts. The hygienic conditions and the supply of food and drinking water can only be described as inadequate: the latter was provided via the toilet, which was located in the cell.

According to the indictment, the men are said to have committed the alleged crimes against prisoners to "suppress the then protest movement against the regime and intimidate the population." The massive physical abuse forced the detainees to make confessions.

Trial Over Operation "White Milk" Ended in Acquittals

The now-dissolved Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Counterterrorism (BVT) had agreed with the Israeli foreign intelligence service Mossad in May 2015 to bring Khaleb Al H. from France to Austria. He was received by BVT officers at the Austrian border, chauffeured to Vienna in a service vehicle, accommodated in a quarter in the federal capital, and financially supported. Subsequently, BVT representatives even assisted the Syrian officer with his asylum procedure and endeavored to help him obtain a right to stay.

According to findings by the Economic and Corruption Prosecutor's Office (WKStA), the cooperation agreement named "White Milk" was primarily concluded by the then BVT department head Martin Weiss, who has since gone into hiding in Dubai. An international arrest warrant has been issued for Weiss because he is said to have co-organized the hasty escape of former Wirecard manager Jan Marsalek from Bad Vöslau airport towards Russia. For three former BVT officers and one from the Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum (BFA), the trial for abuse of office ended in an acquittal in 2023. However, Weiss was already unreachable for the judiciary at that time and did not attend the main hearing. The now first accused general was summoned as a witness at the time but remained reticent. He stated, "I fear for my life and that of my family," at the Vienna Regional Criminal Court.

(APA/Red)

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