Mohammed Hamo, 65-year-old former Syrian brigadier general, has been accused of “aiding and abetting” war crimes during the Syrian civil war, by contributing “action and advice” to the Syrian army, according to his charge sheet.
The trial is set to last until May and could result in a life sentence for Hamo. The charges brought against the former general concern the period of January 1 to July 20, 2012.
In a landmark trial in January 2022, a German court found a Syrian secret intelligence officer of Assad’s regime guilty of torture, sexual violence, and 27 murders at the notorious Branch 251 prison in Damascus, sentencing him to life in prison.
The same court had convicted a former member of Syria’s secret police of accessory to crimes against humanity in 2021, sentencing him to four and a half years in prison. The case was the first international trial against a Syrian official over crimes committed during the brutal civil war.
The UN top court in November ruled that the Syrian regime must halt its torture campaign and preserve all evidence related to acts of torture, in what is its first legal proceeding on the Syrian civil war.
Syrians rose up against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad in March 2011, leading to a full-scale civil war that has claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and has left millions more in need of dire humanitarian assistance.
Over 13 million Syrians, half the country’s prewar population, have been displaced since the start of the civil war, more than six million of which are refugees who have fled the war-torn country, according to UN figures.
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