Indictment of Brig. Genl Khaled Al-Halibi and Mussab A.R. in Austria for Torture, Serious Bodily Harm and Sexual Coercion in Syria

Yesterday, Austrian authorities indicted the former Syrian Brigadier General Khaled Al-Halabi and Mussab A. R on charges of torture, serious bodily harm and sexual coercion.  Al-Halibi’s indictment comes ten years after the Commission for International Justice and Accountability (CIJA) located him in Vienna and shared relevant materials with the Austrian authorities.

Al-Halabi was the head of the General Intelligence Branch 335 in Ar-Raqqa from at least 2009 until 02 March 2013, two days prior to the fall of Raqqa to Syrian opposition forces. He is the highest-ranking former Syrian Regime official to be detained and indicted in Europe for war crimes carried out in Syria during the civil war. Mussab A.R was the head of criminal investigations of the Criminal Security Branch in Raqqa.

Branch 335 was subordinate to the General Intelligence Directorate in Damascus. The CIJA dossier on Al-Halabi is supported by numerous Regime documents, 9 insider witnesses and 39 victim witnesses. Together, the evidence held by CIJA demonstrates that Al-Halabi exercised de jure and de facto control over all aspects of the functioning of Branch 335.  The evidence illustrates that crimes against humanity, including murder, torture and offences, were perpetrated in Branch 335 by subordinates of Al-Halabi, with his knowledge. CIJA also responded to further requests for assistance from Austrian authorities, including information and analysis on Mussab A.R., and the security branch that he operated in, as well as internal regime documents and selected witness statements.

CIJA welcomes the indictment of Al-Halibi and Mussab A.R. This development underscores how persistent documentation and evidence-building – including CIJA’s identification of Khaled Al-Halabi in Vienna and the dossier we provided to Austrian authorities in 2016 – helps to move accountability forward even when it might take years.

CIJA was able to build its dossier on Al-Halabi using its unprecedented evidence holdings and rigorous analytical understanding of the perpetrating structures of the Syrian Regime. It has used this information and analytical capacity to support numerous investigations, including through the submission of evidence and testimony in more than 26 cases in Europe and North America. This includes assisting over 76 law enforcement agencies from 20 countries: since 2016 CIJA has responded to over 965 Requests for Assistance, including requests on nearly 3,000 Syrian Regime and Islamic State targets, many of whom are present in Schengen Zone States. CIJA has also identified a further 57 persons of interest and submitted 40 suspect dossiers to relevant authorities.

CIJA will continue to support victim-centred investigations and to provide responsibly collected evidence to competent authorities as Syrian quest for accountability continues.