Two Syrians accused of torture on trial in Austria

AI Summary

Two former Syrian officials, including a brigadier general and a senior police officer, stand trial in Vienna accused of torture during the Assad regime's crackdown. The alleged abuses occurred in Raqqa between 2011 and 2013 amid the Syrian conflict.

An ex-Syrian general and a former senior Syrian police officer went on trial in Vienna on Monday, accused of torturing opponents of the now-deposed regime of Bashar al-Assad. The two are accused "of having, on numerous occasions, ordered or failed to oppose the mistreatment of members of a protest movement", according to prosecutors. The defendants, a former brigadier general in the Syrian intelligence services and a former head of the investigations office of the local criminal police, are said to have committed the crimes in Raqa between April 2011 and March 2013.