Austria puts former Syrian intelligence general on trial for torture in landmark universal jurisdiction case

The accused

Two former high-ranking officials of the deposed Assad regime sat in the dock at the Vienna Regional Criminal Court on Monday. The main defendant is Khaled al-Halabi, 63 or 64, a former brigadier general who headed Department 335 of the Syrian General Intelligence Directorate in Raqqa. The second defendant is Mussab Abu Rukbah, 54, a former chief of the criminal police in the same city. Both men have been living in Austria with refugee status since 2015.

Al-Halabi arrived in Austria via an extraordinary route. In 2015, he was brought from France to the Austrian border in a covert operation code-named "White Milk," orchestrated by the now-dissolved Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Counterterrorism (BVT) at the request of the Israeli Mossad. The BVT subsequently provided him with an apartment and deceived other authorities to secure him social welfare and asylum. Three former BVT employees were later tried over the affair but acquitted. The operation was arranged by former BVT department head Martin Weiss, who later helped fugitive Wirecard executive Jan Marsalek flee to Russia. Weiss himself now resides in Dubai, which has no extradition treaty with Austria.

The charges

Prosecutors allege that between April 2011 and March 2013, the two men ordered or failed to prevent the systematic mistreatment of 21 imprisoned members of a civilian protest movement in Raqqa. The charges against al-Halabi include torture, serious coercion, sexual coercion, and multiple counts of grievous bodily harm. Abu Rukbah faces charges of grievous bodily harm, serious coercion, and sexual coercion. Both pleaded not guilty. If convicted, each faces up to ten years in prison.

Welcome parties with beatings and standardised, nationwide torture methods were used. Inmates were flogged with water hoses and sprayed with cold water.

In one particularly severe case described in the indictment, the genital area of an 18-year-old detainee was beaten with a baton during interrogation. Cells held 30 to 40 people in overcrowded conditions.

The evidence

The prosecution's case draws on evidence collected by several non-governmental organisations after the Free Syrian Army captured Raqqa in 2013. Crucially, 21 victims have joined the proceedings as private parties and will testify as witnesses. Eighteen of them are represented by the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), which is supporting the Vienna prosecutor's office.

The long wait for indictment is very difficult for the victims, knowing that those responsible for the crimes were living here in Austria in complete safety. Achieving justice is something that can help them live with and overcome as much as possible this trauma that will remain forever.

The legal framework

The trial is a rare instance of a European country applying the principle of universal jurisdiction to prosecute alleged crimes by Syrian regime officials. Austrian law permits its courts to hear certain offences committed abroad when the accused reside in the country. The normal ten-year statute of limitations was lifted under international agreements. The prosecutor noted that the legal situation in Austria is "very favourable" for the defendants because the court must apply the penal code as it stood between 2011 and 2013, when penalties for bodily harm were considerably lower than under the current reformed code.

The proceedings

The court has scheduled 13 hearing days through 30 June. Multiple alleged victims now living in Syria and across Europe are expected to testify. The investigation lasted eight years. Al-Halabi has been in pre-trial detention since 2024. The trial is the first of its kind in Austria and the first since the fall of Bashar al-Assad. Similar proceedings have previously taken place in Germany, France, and Sweden.

This trial sends a signal that perpetrators can no longer feel safe anywhere.