BERLIN (AP) — A German court docket on Thursday convicted a Palestinian man from Syria of a conflict crime and homicide for launching a grenade right into a crowd of civilians ready for meals in Damascus in 2014. He was sentenced to life in jail.
The 55-year-old, recognized solely as Moafak D. consistent with German privateness guidelines, was arrested in 2021 in Berlin, the place he had been residing as a refugee. His trial opened in August.
The German capital’s district court docket discovered that the defendant on March 23, 2014, the suspect launched a grenade from an anti-tank weapon into the gang within the Yarmouk district of Damascus, killing 4 individuals and severely wounding two others.
It stated that he was the commander of a checkpoint for a Palestinian group, most likely the Free Palestine Motion, and on the day in query additionally was presupposed to be overseeing a distribution of meals packages by the U.N. Reduction and Works Company, the U.N. company for Palestinian refugees.
The Yarmouk district, which grew out of a Palestinian refugee camp, was cordoned off by the Syrian authorities from July 2013 to April 2015, inflicting shortages of meals, water and medical provides.
The court docket stated the defendant acted out of revenge towards civilians within the district after his 25-year-old nephew was killed two days earlier by photographs fired by opponents of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s authorities.
He was convicted of a very critical conflict crime, 4 counts of homicide, two counts of tried homicide and bodily hurt. The court docket additionally decided that he bears significantly extreme guilt, which means that he will not be eligible for launch after 15 years as is often the case in Germany.
The decision may be appealed.
Germany’s utility of the rule of “common jurisdiction,” permitting the prosecution of great crimes dedicated overseas, led final 12 months to the first conviction of a senior Syrian official for crimes towards humanity.